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Chapter Twenty:
People’s Bias
There was a moment of silence in the hall. Madam Xiao’s chest felt blocked and she couldn’t breathe.
She had always been strong and decisive, and once she made up her mind to do something, she never turned back. This time, however, she couldn’t keep scolding or punishing her children for their resistance. She could only keep saying to herself, ‘You are right, Yang Yang is honest and sincere. If you don’t protect her, she will only be bullied. You have to suppress this evil creature, and can’t let Yang Yang be wronged.’ Even still, Madam Xiao knew in her heart that this wasn’t good.
Cheng Song, who had not intervened yet, startled everyone by standing up abruptly.
Cheng Song didn’t smile. He took a few big steps over and grabbed Nanny Fu’s hair by the bun, dragging her to the door behind him. Then, with a strong arm, threw her outside on the porch. Nanny Fu let out a shriek, and then there was silence.
Cheng Yang let out a cry and fainted on Chang Pu. Chang Pu also began to tremble. They had never done this before in the Ge family, as the women of the Ge family always treated them fairly, and why they were so used to trying to covet things for their Young Mistress. Now, Chang Pu finally understood that the Cheng family was not the Ge family, and they couldn’t be self-righteous and strong.
Madam Xiao originally intended to curse her second son, but to her surprise, Cheng Song turned around and she saw that his eyes were filled with tears and his face filled with grief and anger. She couldn’t even bring herself to say anything. Cheng Song walked back and knelt heavily beside Cheng Yong, loudly pronouncing, “If Mother wants to punish Eldest Brother, I will be punished as well!” Then, Cheng Shaogong silently walked over and knelt down, bowing his head without saying a word. It was obvious he meant the same thing.
Madam Xiao didn’t expect that her three sons would express such strong dissatisfaction with her. She was choked and couldn’t swallow. Seeing the situation could only get worse, Madam Sang suddenly cried out in pain and everyone rushed to her side.
Madam Sang covered her abdomen with one hand and gripped Madam Xiao’s wrist with the other. “Sister, I seem to have abdominal pain again,” she said weakly. “Do you still have the pill you gave me last time? Hurry and get two for me! Hurry up, hurry up!”
Perplexed, Madam Xiao turned to Qing Cong to ask her to fetch it. Madam Sang had a lot of strength left and dragged her out of the hall to her inner residence, shouting, “It’s killing me! Hurry and get the pill for me!”
Madam Sang and Madam Xiao left like a gust of wind, leaving everyone stunned and at a loss for words.
As soon as they arrived in the inner hall, Madam Sang immediately straightened up and sternly held back the maid beside her. She threw Madam Xiao onto her daily resting bed and glared. “Sister’s great authority today has frightened me!”
Madam Xiao had been so angry with her children she became dizzy. It was only then she realized that Madam Sang was pretending to have abdominal pain, so as to give everyone a break and avoid causing more chaos.
She lay on her side on the bed, rubbing her chest. “My authority?” she said stiffly. “Look at that villain, forcing me to say it sentence by sentence, like she’s the only authority!”
“You deserve it! Who told you that one move was wrong and everything fell down?” Madam Sang walked two circles in the room, then stopped. “You started wrong. Although you were wrong, you refused to say a good word. Since ancient times, your father has been unkind and your son unfilial and you cannot justify yourself. You should have been forced to this point by showing your motherly authority!”
“Those troublemakers! Madam Xiao said bitterly. “What’s wrong with giving up? One sentence would have been enough. They should have turned around and let it go. Yang Yang’s face…”
“Yang Yang, Yang Yang, Yang Yang! Stop talking about Yang Yang! It’s nauseating to listen to!”
Madam Sang took off her close-fitting kit from her waist and threw it at Madam Xiao. “People’s hearts have biases,” she said bluntly, “that’s not unusual. But your bias is too much! You are obviously wrong, and you are talking about things that are completely unreasonable. Shaoshang was not brought up by you! Even if she was brought up by a concubine, you shouldn’t treat her like this! What you said about disobedience just now was crueler than anything you’ve said. You pushed Niao Niao into a corner. Let’s see how you explain this to Eldest Brother-in-law!”
Madam Xiao took two Heart Clearing Pills from the brocade bag and tossed them into her mouth. A cool and spicy sensation rushed straight to her forehead, and she finally regained her composure. She shook her head. “I was confused and angry,” she said, mocking herself. “I shouldn’t have done such a thing today.”
She had been favored by her father since she was a child, and she received the same teachings as her brothers. She knew everything about strategy and politics, but her understanding of the subtleties of the inner house was far inferior than that of Madam Sang. In fact, except for a few brief months in her ex-husband’s house, she always existed in the inner house without paying attention to the careful thoughts of several maidservants.
She had to admit that this time, she was bullheaded, made a mistake, and lost.
Madam Sang watched her expression gradually turn. “Well, I didn’t expect it,” she said with a smile. “Niao Niao had such a brave expression on her face. If you want to use respect towards elders to subdue her, she is not afraid at all.”
Madam Xiao glanced at her and was about to get up, but was stopped by Madam Sang. “What are you going out for? Do you want to scold Niao Niao again? Today’s matter is your fault, and if you scold her again, it will only make my three nephews feel more pity towards her. They dare not hate you, but they will definitely resent you. If you really want to do it for your own good, don’t add fuel to the fire. Moreover, have you ever thought about what your husband would do if he found out about today’s incident?”
Madam Xiao sat back on her bed and thought for a moment. “I will tell him myself,” she said. “I did something wrong, and I won’t cover it up.” She never procrastinates on such matters. “What happened today… just let it go?” It had to come to end.
“Don’t go out,” Madam Sang said simply, “I’ll go. I’ll just tell those little enemies that you’re angry with them and you’ll let the children come and apologize to you. If you’re vague, the matter will be over.”
Madam Xiao bowed her head. She had a strong personality and didn’t agree with glossing over these types of situations.
“Family affairs are not a dispute of political opinions in the Imperial court. There is no such thing as black and white. So what if you win the battle? The children are not convinced, and will only begin to distance themselves from you,” Madam Sang persuaded. “You are a sensible person so I won’t say nonsense. If you visited another household and this sort of thing happened to them, what would you think? Everyone would think that Shaoshang is your niece and Yang Yang was your own!”
“Nonsense!”
“Yes, yes, yes. I know that my sister-in-law is the fairest,” Madam Sang smiled, got up and went to leave the room. Before she fully exited, she turned to say, “Some people in this world, in order to show their impartiality, sometimes treat others favorably and their own flesh and blood harshly. What you said today was ridiculous.”
Madam Xiao’s heart jumped.
…
Everyone remained silent in the Nine Zhui hall. Qing Cong walked over and gently pinched the people of Cheng Yang and told Chang Pu to step down.
Cheng Shaoshang looked at her older brothers, who were also looking at her. They understood each other’s intentions.
Cheng Yang regained consciousness. She turned around and crawled up to Cheng Shaoshang on her hands and feet, grabbing her sleeve and crying bitterly. “Niao Niao, don’t hate me. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t expect your grievances to be so great. It was all my fault, and your brothers had to apologize…” She was hesitant and could only bow her head and apologize profusely, sniffling and choking as she cried. The three Cheng brothers couldn’t bear it.
“Cousin, I really don’t blame you,” Cheng Shaoshang stopped her from apologizing. “But things in this world have never been fair.” She helped Cheng Yang smooth out her messy skirt. “You have no mother yet have a motherly figure around, while I have a mother but don’t have one.”
“Niao Niao!” Cheng Yang rasped. “Don’t speak nonsense!”
“Then I won’t talk anymore,” Cheng Shaoshang said, spreading out her hands.
“Although my cousin left the Cheng family from a young age, her aunt treated her like pearls and treasures,” Cheng Shaogong said, sounding gloomy. “After returning to the Cheng family, Mother treated you as if you were her own. But what about Shaoshang…” He trailed off, but everyone understood.
In her heart, Qing Cong also felt sorry for Cheng Shaoshang.
The world was truly unfair. She was born as a twin of the dragon and phoenix, carrying blessings, and then her fate turned a corner when she turned three years old. The love that should be obtained could not be obtained, the glory that should be enjoyed could not be enjoyed, growing up in front of two foolish and narrow women. And the daughter of the woman who committed such evil deeds can be allowed to live in the sunshine, be loved, nurtured, and grow up happily – how could this make people’s hearts calm?!
Cheng Shaogong felt hurt in his heart and whispered, “Shaoshang, I wished I had stayed with you. I’ll stay with you from now on.”
Shaoshang glanced at him and said, “Then there would be two illiterate people. Why didn’t Eldest Brother send us two writing desks?!”
Everyone couldn’t help but smile at this, and the sorrowful atmosphere in the room dissipated.
“There’s still me,” Cheng Song patted his chest. “I’ll give you my writing desk as well!”
“Forget it,” Cheng Shaogong shot him down immediately. “You haven’t read at all since we came back home. You don’t even know where your writing desk is, I’m sure it hasn’t been unloaded from the carriage yet!”
Cheng Song laughed and cursed, making the motion to punch his younger brother. Everyone laughed.
“Niao Niao,” Cheng Yong said, smiling, “in the future, you can tell your brothers what you want, and we will always get it for you.” He made the decision himself that, even if he had to bear his mother’s punishment, he would make his younger sister happy in the future.
Shaoshang had been waiting for someone to say that sentence. She was overjoyed. She quickly glanced at Cheng Yong’s clothes and began to stutter. “I… I want to go out and take a look at the world. I don’t know where the East and West Markets are, or the Dehui Fang and Liuxin Fang are. I want to know what it looks like outside, but Mother doesn’t allow me to go out.”
Looking at her young, hopeful eyes, Cheng Yong’s heart softened. Before he could speak, Cheng Song was making promises. “Don’t worry, even if Mother reprimands me again and again, I will take you to see the world!”
Noticing Cheng Yang was sitting quietly next to them, Shaoshang turned around and said to her, “We’ll go together, Cousin!” Cheng Yang was delighted to hear this.
“That’s right!” Cheng Shaogong cheered, “if we go too, we don’t have to be afraid of Mother punishing us!” Everyone laughed.
Qing Cong shook her head and sighed. It was really nice to be young.
Everyone was laughing, especially Shaoshang, who was very happy, but no one knew what she was thinking in her heart.
After spending a half day, was she just seeking justice or mercy? Compassion that can’t be translated into practical effects was useless. What’s more, since she was a child, she had been unwilling to suffer in vain.
With all this pretentiousness, her goal had never been to blame Madam Xiao.
To impress Madam Xiao? Make her feel compassion? Arguing to make her feel ashamed and regretful, then pamper her? That wasn’t even an option. Never try to wake someone who pretends to be asleep; it’s useless to try any harder if one’s heart was biased.
She needed to act freely, go out openly, know how to stand on her own in the future, and not be confined to a small world any longer!
Shaoshang was actually grateful to that stupid old woman and maid; otherwise she wouldn’t know how to take this next step.
…
This is in response to someone saying that it was fortunate the original Cheng Shaoshang had died, otherwise it would’ve been even more sad.
“I want to say that if it weren’t for the heroine to cross over, the original Cheng Shaoshang and her mother wouldn’t be so stiff to each other.
Cheng Shaoshang was a little girl who bullied the weak and feared the strong, and she had never seen the world before. Madam Xiao had such a powerful demeanor that if she yelled, she would be frightened and be obedient to Madam Xiao. She went wherever Madam Xiao pointed to. Although it wasn’t a close relationship, it wouldn’t have escalated to the current situation.
But the female protagonist is a person who has already formed three perspectives. She has a complete logic of action and judgement criteria, and will not bow down to Madam Xiao at all. The more she is disliked, the more dissatisfaction she accumulates.”