Matriarch Rules, Scumbag Begs - Chapter 21

Chapter 21 I Wait for the King of Hell

After they walked a distance away, Xia Shang still couldn’t help but say with indignation: “That guy was talking nonsense. The street in Chunyang road is wide, and even with the market, it wouldn’t block the main road. Why did he insist on taking a detour?”

Shen Qiuci gently touched Xia Shang’s puffy cheek and smiled warmly: “Even if you asked him, would he tell you the truth?”

She wasn’t paying attention to this conversation and was instead staring intently at the bustle in front of the Minister’s mansion.

Through the gaps, she caught a glimpse of the snow-covered ground in front of the mansion, where a patch of bright red had bloomed.

When she stopped to take a closer look, she saw a woman in plain clothes lying face-up in the snow. Her forehead was severely injured, and blood was gushing out uncontrollably. It seemed she had already lost her life.

Listening to the surrounding crowd’s discussion, this woman had somehow collided with the stone lion in front of the Minister of Rites’s mansion and died on the spot.

“Ah!”

Xia Shang’s shocked cry caught Shen Qiuci’s attention, and she turned to look at her.

Xia Shang covered her mouth and turned her face away, unable to bear looking anymore. She murmured: “Pan Di? I didn’t think she would really be so desperate…”

“Do you know her?” Shen Qiuci asked.

Xia Shang nodded: “Pan Di was a servant at Tianxiang Building. Whenever I went there to buy things, I would always chat with her for a bit.”

“What do you mean she was desperate?” Shen Qiuci asked.

Xia Shang sighed and shook her head: “The son of the Minister of Rites, Lu Yan, took a fancy to her and drugged her, violating her. Originally, Pan Di wanted to report it, but Lu Yan gave her parents 100 taels of silver and asked them to give Pan Di to him as a concubine.”

“Pan Di’s parents took the silver without hesitation and agreed.”
“Her mother said she has two younger brothers, and when they grow up, they’ll need money to get married and have children. As their older sister, Pan Di should consider their well-being. After all, she’ll get married sooner or later, and it’s her good fortune to be able to enter the Minister’s mansion.”

Although Xia Shang wasn’t particularly close to Pan Di, mentioning this matter made her voice choke with emotion, almost to the point of losing her voice: “The day I saw Pan Di, her childhood sweetheart, who had grown up with her, had already abandoned her because she wasn’t a virgin anymore. When Pan Di worked at Tianxiang Building, people would often gossip about her.”

“Back then, Pan Di cried and told me that she would rather die than be humiliated like this. I thought she was just talking, but I didn’t expect…”

Shen Qiuci watched coldly as a steward came out of the Minister’s mansion. He looked disgusted and led several servants in roughly wrapping Pan Di’s corpse in a straw mat.

Then he spat on her and said: “I spit on you! A woman of such low birth should be grateful for our young master’s favor. You’re just a shameless thing who doesn’t know how to appreciate kindness! How dare you defile the grounds of our Minister’s mansion?”

With a wave of his hand, he ordered the servants to take her away and bury her in a mass grave.

The way they handled the situation was so casual, as if the straw mat didn’t contain a person, but just a piece of rotten flesh.

The crowd dispersed, and the tide of people pushed Shen Qiuci outward.
The cacophony of discussions among the common people surged into Shen Qiuci’s ears like waves: “A peasant woman like her, being able to serve as a concubine to Young Master Lu, is a blessing from several lifetimes of good deeds. If my daughter had such an opportunity, I would be overjoyed, burning incense and praying. In the future, when my son gets married and has children, we wouldn’t have to worry.”

“She died from hitting her head in anger? She should blame herself for being too beautiful and attractive. If she were ugly, would anyone bother with her?”

“Some people say she was just being promiscuous. Maybe she intentionally seduced Young Master Lu and now she’s playing the victim after getting what she wanted!”

These voices, both male and female, were all harsh and piercing.

When the crowd dispersed a bit, Xia Shang wiped away her tears and said: “Actually, I advised Pan Di to just accept it.”

“After all, her parents had already accepted the betrothal gift from the Minister’s mansion. A woman’s marriage is always determined by her parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s words.”

“Once she became Lu Yan’s concubine, even if she protested, the authorities wouldn’t accept her complaints anymore.”

She shook her head heavily, with a helpless and bitter smile: “If this had happened to me, I would have had to accept it too.”

“After all, losing one’s chastity is a huge deal for a woman. Wherever she goes, people would gossip behind her back, and she would never be able to hold her head up high again.”

Shen Qiuci looked up at her, her eyes filled with complex emotions.

She wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words.

Because she knew that most women in this world would think the same way as Xia Shang.

Even her own older sister, who came from a noble family, had endured humiliation in the Marquis’s mansion for years, all for the sake of her reputation and chastity.

In the end, she sacrificed her own life to barely maintain a reputation as a virtuous wife and mother.

Xia Shang sighed: “Actually, most people in the capital know that Lu Yan has played with many women, not just Pan Di. But Pan Di was the only one who dared to resist.”

“What was the outcome? She was just a lowly woman, and she didn’t know where she got the courage to demand justice from such a powerful and noble family…”

Shen Qiuci turned her head and cast a deep glance towards the Minister’s mansion, her voice low and serious: “He will face retribution.”

“Retribution? Maybe… But for things that even the authorities can’t handle, if there’s retribution, it can only be hoped that Heaven will intervene.”

Shen Qiuci slowly raised her head, looking up at the boundless sky. The sun, which should have been high in the sky, was obscured by dark clouds. Only sparse sunlight managed to filter through the gaps in the clouds, struggling to reach the ground.

Shen Qiuci withdrew her gaze and looked straight at the muddy and bumpy road in front of her. It’s hard to achieve perfection in worldly affairs, and Heaven rarely intervenes.
But that’s okay.

If Heaven is unfair, she would be the King of Hell herself.

Because the carriage driver took them on a detour, passing through Huajing road, and to get to the Shen mansion, they had to go through a sparsely populated path.

As they walked, the number of pedestrians on the street decreased, and Shen Qiuci suddenly slowed down her pace and said to Xia Shang: “Go buy me a bottle of Drunk Duck. I remember my elder sister used to love eating it.”

Xia Shang nodded, but couldn’t help feeling worried: “But will it be safe for you to go back alone, miss?”

Shen Qiuci smiled: “It’s just a couple of turns away from home, don’t worry.” After Xia Shang left, Shen Qiuci strolled through the snow.

She turned into a small alley, which was even more deserted. The snow on the ground was almost untouched, with hardly any footprints.

Before long, the path ahead was blocked by a sturdy pine tree.

This was a dead-end alley.

Shen Qiuci suddenly stopped and stood under the pine tree, smiling faintly: “You’ve followed me all the way, what do you want?”

As she spoke, she turned around calmly, her gaze falling on a tall man behind her.

He approached Shen Qiuci step by step, a seductive smile on his face, and a dagger in his hand. The cold light of the blade reflected off the snow, casting an ominous glow.