Chapter 210: Chapter 210

"You really know how to flatter yourself. Why don’t you ask the children and see if they think your beard is soft?" Princess Consort Luling sneered.

Prince Luling indeed asked the children, "Is my beard soft?"

"No!" The children replied in unison.

Li Jing also nodded seriously, "No, Grandpa’s beard is quite prickly."

Li Yuzhu fed the warmed milk to Guoguo.

After chatting about family matters for a while, everyone dispersed. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel·fiɾe·net

There were no dishes to wash because when Li Yuzhu just left, Second Young Master and the third son, Li Xing’an, had washed the dishes together.

The Second Princess was exhausted after a long day and leaned on the Great Princess while walking.

The Great Princess pushed her away disdainfully.

Second Young Master and Li Xing’an were worried about the Princely Heir, so they immediately returned to the house.

Li Yuzhu, holding Li Jing’s hand, followed Prince Luling and his wife back to the North Courtyard Main House.

"Milk, milk—" As soon as they entered the main house, Guoguo tugged on Princess Consort Luling’s collar, pointing towards the bedroom.

"Are you sleepy again? Alright, alright, Grandma will take Guoguo to sleep." Princess Consort Luling smiled, coaxing Guoguo.

"Jingjing also wants to sleep." Li Jing gave a big yawn.

"Alright, Jingjing can sleep too." Princess Consort Luling said with a smile, patting Li Jing’s head.

Li Jing, extremely tired, clung to Li Yuzhu’s leg, yawning one after another.

Li Yuzhu supported him, preventing him from falling to the ground.

Prince Luling took out the fire stone and lit the candle.

The two chairs lying on their sides in the room surprised him, "How did these chairs fall over?"

Princess Consort Luling also remarked, "Eh, why is this room so messy?"

Besides the fallen chairs, the feather duster had also dropped to the ground.

"Yu Zhu, was the room when you came in?" Prince Luling asked, picking up the chairs before noticing a pair of scissors on the floor and picking them up to examine.

"Guoguo’s mother was here." Li Yuzhu replied.

She didn’t want to call her sister-in-law. The woman didn’t want to stay here and didn’t want to be her sister-in-law anymore, so why should she pretentiously call her that?

Princess Consort Luling looked at Li Yuzhu in confusion, "She was here? What did she want to do?"

"She bullied Guoguo. I got into a fight with her, but she couldn’t beat me, so I drove her away. At that time, I hadn’t lit the lamp, so we might have knocked the chairs over during the tussle." Li Yuzhu said coldly, "Guoguo was crying, so I took her to the kitchen."

Princess Consort Luling looked at the Guoguo in her arms, "Guoguo, did your mother bully you?"

Guoguo blinked her clear eyes, glanced at Princess Consort Luling, then rested her little head on her shoulder, tightly hugging her neck.

"This is outrageous. What on earth is she trying to do?" Princess Consort Luling huffed coldly as she carried Guoguo into the bedroom.

The bedroom was messy as well.

The bed curtain was pulled so hard that one side hung halfway down the bed, the pillow was not in its usual place on the bed but was lying on the edge instead.

"Ah, ah—" Guoguo suddenly pointed behind the bed.

Princess Consort Luling carried Guoguo over to look.

The large chest containing important household items, originally under the bed, was now out from under, and its lock was twisted.

Clearly, someone tried to open the lock on the chest.

Upon seeing Princess Consort Luling frowning, Li Yuzhu added, "When I came, Guoguo’s mother was in the room. She probably wanted to open the chest but found it locked, so went to look for the key, waking the sleeping Guoguo. Then, tried to smother Guoguo with a pillow. If I had been late—"

Princess Consort Luling’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the three-foot-long pillow stuffed with chaff on the bed. She gritted her teeth in anger, "How dare she!"

Prince Luling also entered the bedroom, puzzled, "What does she want with the chest? There’s nothing important in it."

"It has about twenty taels of silver and a jade hairpin given to Guoguo by Miss Chai." Princess Consort Luling said with a cold smile.

"This is outrageous! Is this how an heir’s wife behaves? How does our eldest manage her usually?" Prince Luling said, shaking his sleeve.

"Where is she? Yu Zhu, find her. I want to ask her why she did this!" Princess Consort Luling said with a solemn face.

Li Yuzhu glanced at a bewildered Li Jing and sighed slightly, "Big Brother has already taken care of it. Anyway, there’s no place for her in this house. She said she doesn’t want to stay here anymore."

Princess Consort Luling and Prince Luling exchanged a glance and then looked at Li Yuzhu.

"Yu Zhu, are you saying..." Princess Consort Luling’s eyes widened in surprise, "Eldest Brother made a decision?"

Li Yuzhu nodded, "I overheard their discussion. Big Brother hasn’t spoken about it outside. Give him some time, once he’s made up his mind, he’ll naturally tell everyone."

Princess Consort Luling glanced at the Guoguo in her arms, then at Li Jing, who stood beside Li Yuzhu and was yawning incessantly, and let out a long sigh.

"Luckily, these two children are still young and don’t know what their mother has done. If they were older..." Princess Consort Luling shook her head, frowning with worry.

Li Yuzhu said, "Mother, Father, from now on, let’s not mention Guoguo’s mother’s affairs. Just pretend she never appeared. If these two kids ask about her, just say she’s... gone away to recover."

Saying good things about Xue Family in front of the children would be against conscience. She believed that Princess Consort Luling and others couldn’t do it either.

Saying bad things about Xue Family, instilling in the children from a young age that their mother is a villain, although speaking the truth, would burden the children psychologically and give them an inferiority complex.

Other children’s mothers would never abandon them, but their mother ran away!

Before running away, she even wanted to steal money and kill people. How could they hold their heads high in the future?

Simply not mentioning Xue Family, she believed these two children would naturally understand some things when they grow up.

Not mentioning someone, naturally, means they don’t deserve to be mentioned.

Princess Consort Luling did not disagree, "Let’s do it that way." She was now furious whenever she thought of Xue Family, so she would just consider Xue Family dead!

Xue Family was driven out of the house by Li Yuzhu. Clutching the money in her pocket, she found a household to stay the night.

Only when she knocked on the door did Xue Family realize it was the home of Qin Lizheng’s parents.

Mrs. Qin also recognized her, "Oh, aren’t you the Li family’s daughter-in-law?"

The Li family house, at the far edge of Taohua River Village, after passing the Li family and heading westwards, you reach Qingshui River Village.

At the far east side of the village was Miss Chai’s house.

Xue Family nodded sheepishly, "It’s me."

Mrs. Qin led her into the house, "Oh my, what are you doing outside alone at night? Isn’t your man concerned about you?"

Xue Family lowered her head, "I was just beaten by my husband and thought I’d borrow a night here."

"What? Your man usually doesn’t talk much, he actually hit you?" Mrs. Qin was very surprised, "You gave birth to two kids for him, and he still hits you? Truly outrageous."

"Who says it’s not," Xue Family thought about the heir’s coldness today, feeling even more like escaping far away.

"Really, next time I see your man, I must give him a good talking to." Mrs. Qin shook her head, leading Xue Family to the storeroom, "There’s no extra bed inside, make do for the night."

At this point, Xue Family didn’t mind; she went into the side room and sat down.

Mrs. Qin settled Xue Family, closed the door, and returned to her own room to continue sleeping.

She told Old Qin about sheltering Xue Family for a night.

Old Qin was surprised, "Li Family’s eldest hits his wife? Impossible."

"Why not? I saw that lady’s neck still had bruises, and her wrist had blue marks." Mrs. Qin was indignant.

Old Qin mused, "The couple’s matters, you can’t just listen to one side."

"Why can’t you? I see it’s real." Mrs. Qin stuck to her view, "Alright, alright, let’s sleep; we’ll see tomorrow. If Li Family’s eldest comes to fetch his wife, I’ll believe he didn’t hit her. If he doesn’t, then he did."

The next day, after Xue Family woke up, she said goodbye and left.

Mrs. Qin still urged her to stay a bit longer, waiting for her husband to come and fetch her back.

How could Xue Family be willing to stay a moment longer?

She waved her hand and left.

She had to catch the ox cart to the township market to find Yu Wen Zan before the villagers went to the fair.

After she left, until noon, the heir did not come to the village to look for Xue Family,

Mrs. Qin said to Old Qin, "Look, Li Family’s eldest did hit his wife, he didn’t come looking."

"You damn old woman, talking nonsense!" Old Qin still didn’t believe it.

The heir spent a night in the room of Second Young Master and Li Xing’an, and at the break of dawn the next day, he went to the North Courtyard to see his parents.

For such a big matter as separating from Xue Family, he had to discuss it with his parents.

To his surprise, Prince Luling and his wife got up earlier than usual.

It seemed like they were waiting for him on purpose.

Seeing him come in, Prince Luling immediately pointed to the chair beside him and said, "Jingjing and Guoguo are still sleeping, whatever you want to say, just say it."

Princess Consort Luling also said, "What big matters have your father and I not been through? Don’t hide anything, just say it."