The Mute Wife Who Brings Prosperity-Chapter 601 - 568: Divorce
The front main gate and the side corner gates on both sides were blocked by government people. Tang Yuan could only change into a servant’s clothes, disguising himself to leave through the back door, but was stopped by his other brothers.
"Second brother, where are you planning to go?"
The speaker came from the third family, named Tang Jing. His father was illegitimate and originally had no status in this estate. It was only with great difficulty that he got a place at the Imperial College, now utterly ruined because of the disgraceful scandals from the main household.
Half an hour ago, he was still in the lecture hall at the Imperial College, when news came from who-knows-where, saying the second master of the Tang House had taken his own sister-in-law, Mrs. Jiang, as a concubine, and she was accused of attempting to murder the eldest master, Tang Xiao, years ago.
In that instant, all eyes looking at Tang Jing turned mockingly.
He only felt like a thousand sharp needles were piercing his spine.
All the dignity he had ever held was completely shattered.
Overcome with shame, Tang Jing asked for leave early to return home, intending to settle accounts with Tang Yuan.
Now that he’s intercepted him, how could he possibly let it go easily?
Seeing Tang Jing’s eyes flaring with ferocity, Tang Yuan sensed trouble and planned to retreat, but Tang Jing, without a word, threw a heavy punch, hitting Tang Yuan square on the bridge of his nose. He immediately tasted blood in his mouth, saw stars, and with his illness-stricken body unable to withstand the blow, staggered back a few steps before barely steadying himself.
Wiping the blood from his nose, Tang Yuan stared darkly at Tang Jing, "Move aside!"
"What if I don’t?" Tang Jing was also desperate.
Usually, no matter how confident he was, he wouldn’t dare clash with people from the legitimate branch and would always avoid trouble if possible. But today, Tang Jing felt unprecedented shame because of having such a cousin.
Not only him, but several others also lost all their dignity in a day due to Tang Yuan and Jiang Qingyu’s affair, facing scorn and ridicule. Their anger needed release.
So, a few of them swarmed forward, kicking and punching Tang Yuan until he was barely alive, cursing him for speaking of righteousness and morality while secretly engaging in debauchery, behaving like swine, shamelessly disgracing the family tradition.
Though filled with hatred, they were just a bunch of young lads, afraid to actually kill him. Seeing Tang Yuan sprawled ineffectively, they spat at him before hurriedly fleeing the scene.
Tang Yuan clutched his stomach, curled up on the snowy ground, his entire body aching as if skinned and disemboweled.
Most of the estate’s servants were punished by Mrs. Qiao to stand outside the front hall, and the servants on the Zilan Courtyard side were unwilling to bother with him, so no one noticed the disturbance here.
Spitting out the blood in his mouth, Tang Yuan slowly struggled to get up, limping towards the back gate.
The boy leading the horse was likely held up by a government officer and hadn’t arrived, and Tang Yuan couldn’t wait any longer. Stumbling, he made his way to the back street carriage line, paid for a carriage, saying he wanted to go to General Changwei’s Mansion.
He was so bruised and swollen from the beating that the coachman didn’t recognize him, and when he mentioned "General Changwei’s Mansion," the coachman laughed and said, "You don’t know, do you? There’s no longer a General Chang Wei."
Tang Yuan was taken aback, "What do you mean by that?"
The coachman cracked the whip, the horse lifted its hooves toward the Xu Family’s direction.
In the chilling wind, the coachman’s voice echoed back to the carriage, "General Chang Wei and the Grand Commander Su captured West Yue and returned victorious. They previously entered the palace to receive rewards, with General Chang Wei being titled as Marquis Zhenxi, and now, over there is the Marquis Mansion, not the General Mansion anymore."
The coach made a living running people around daily, so he was well-informed.
Hearing this, Tang Yuan sat stiffly inside, unmoving for a long time, his mind swarming with thoughts.
From being beaten by those brothers just now—well, ever since Jiang Qingyu’s arrest and everything was exposed—he had deeply repented.
All these years, what he couldn’t let go of wasn’t Jiang Qingyu but the fact that his brother had taken his woman.
The deep affection he believed in was just self-deception.
If it were true affection, why was he never willing to touch her?
If she truly mattered to him, he should have acted for her well-being, not risked everything to bring her to his backyard against the world’s morality.
In the same way, Mrs. Jiang wasn’t truly sincere to him; otherwise, why didn’t she sternly refuse him back then and instead indulged in his whims as her brother-in-law till today?
Who was truly good to him, who genuinely cared for this family, he should have long realized.
Thinking of how coldly he treated his wife from the Xu Family after she married in, and recalling her contributions to the family and the words she often said that pricked him, Tang Yuan’s eyes were filled with regretful tears. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
He once thought that having Qingyu made everyone else seem like fish eyes, yet in the end, the Xu Family wife was the pearl he missed. How foolish he was to neglect and ignore his lawfully wedded wife to entertain a worthless woman who only pretended to be weak, pitiful, and seduced him!
