Chapter 160

Most of the residents in Qingshi Lane were wealthy families, but because it was a quiet spot amidst the noise, the lane was not very wide.

It could barely accommodate two carriages.

Now that Jiang Li was driving one, the people opposite, although they had no carriage, were carrying a stretcher that was not much narrower than a carriage; unless one side took the initiative to yield, they would be blocked here.

Reasonably speaking, the stretcher should yield first; after all, two-legged people are more obedient than four-legged beasts.

But Du Ren Mei did not think so.

He was Jiang Li's father-in-law; how could there be a reason for an elder to yield the road to a junior?

"Jiang Li, move to the side; we need to pass," Du Ren Mei said in a tone that took it for granted.

Jiang Li's grip on the whip tightened, but he didn't say a word.

Instead, his horse began to grow restless, its hooves impatiently stomping the ground, and then it suddenly shook its head and blew a mouthful of foul air at Du Ren Mei, who was standing at the very front.

Du Ren Mei was almost gagged by the stench and hurriedly covered his nose, retreating several steps.

"Jiang Li, are you deaf? Didn't you hear me talking?" He frowned and raised his volume.

Jiang Li finally reacted, but not toward Du Ren Mei; he turned his head to look at the carriage behind him.

"Wife, should we yield?"

Du Ruo simply climbed out of the carriage, sat beside him, and said with a fake smile, "Yield, otherwise if they happen to have some mishap, what if they blame it on us?"

Jiang Li nodded as if it were a serious matter, then patted the horse's rump. "Did you hear that, Brother Horse? Move aside."

Brother Horse blew another puff of air, clearly unhappy.

But it still obediently dragged the carriage to the side of the road, clearing more than half the space, enough for two stretchers to pass on the other side.

Du Ren Mei, however, stood there foolishly, not moving, his eyes staring at Du Ruo in disbelief.

This, is this really A'Man?

Yes, it is A'Man; A'Man used to look just like this!

The nose like his, the mouth like her mother's, especially those unique phoenix eyes, beautiful to the extreme, unforgettable at first sight.

Earlier, when he heard that A'Man had recovered her appearance, he didn't believe it; after all, having been ruined to that extent, no matter what, it was impossible to recover as before.

Now it seemed he was narrow-minded; how was this just recovering as before?

It was clearly even more dazzling and eye-catching than before!

Du Ren Mei suddenly felt some regret; if he had known A'Man's face could be healed, he shouldn't have agreed to let A'Man marry in place of Zhu'er.

With A'Man's beauty, even if she couldn't marry into a royal or noble family, she would certainly have had no problem becoming a favored concubine in a high-ranking household...

"Master, are we not going?" the Jiang woman reminded in a low voice.

Only then did Du Ren Mei come to his senses, muttered a few times, and hurriedly signaled the old women to carry the stretcher back to the estate.

Just as they passed, they heard the sound of a horsewhip cutting through the air behind them, followed by dust flying, and the carriage trotted far away.

Du Ren Mei looked back, then glanced at the person on the stretcher beside him, and sighed secretly.

Fortune plays tricks on people; before, it was A'Man's face that was ruined, and now that A'Man has finally recovered, it is Zhu'er's turn.

Hopefully, Zhu'er can also recover soon; otherwise, life will be impossible to live. Sigh.

The Du estate was not far from the Xian Ya, only a quarter of an hour's walk.

After entering the estate, Du Mingzhu was quickly carried into her boudoir, and it took several old women working together to move her onto the bed.

Even so, Du Mingzhu still shed tears from the pain.

Although the red rashes and pustules on her body had faded, the new wounds were just healing, and every movement would pull at the skin and flesh all over her body, causing unbearable pain.

And this kind of pain would last for at least another month; only when fresh granulation tissue grew out could she get out of bed and move around like a normal person.

Whenever she thought of this, Du Mingzhu became so irritable she wanted to kill someone.

The Jiang woman also knew her daughter was in a bad mood and had no appetite, so after comforting her a few times, she went to the kitchen, intending to personally cook a few dishes her daughter liked.

Du Ren Mei did not want to face the temperamental Du Mingzhu, so he used the excuse of having business at the Ya Men and left after sitting for only a short while.

Only two rough-working old women remained in the room, whom the Jiang woman had specifically assigned to serve Du Mingzhu with using the chamber pot and turning over.

And one personal maid.

Du Mingzhu looked at the maid and asked coldly, "Where is Xia He?"

The maid hurriedly knelt down and replied tremblingly, "Xia He, Xia He made a mistake and was beaten to death by the Madam..."

Xia He had died on the very day Du Mingzhu was imprisoned.

The Jiang woman felt that with her daughter's brain, she would never have come up with the rotten idea of forcibly abducting the Zheng woman; someone must have instigated her.

Plus, Xia He knew too much, and she worried that others would use Xia He to dig up other incriminating evidence against Du Mingzhu, so she simply took this opportunity to silence her.

Even after Xia He died, she had people throw her corpse into the mass grave to be devoured by wild dogs.

Naturally, the maid would not say these things, and Du Mingzhu would probably never know.

But even if she did know, she wouldn't be sad.

"Hmph, that cheap maid got off easy."

That cheap maid had mistaken Jiang Li, causing her to make such a big fool of herself in public, and had even given a handsome man to that cheap seed Du Ruo for nothing.

If it were up to her to deal with it, she would definitely dig out Xia He's useless eyes first, then chop off her four limbs to use as fertilizer!

Malice rolled in Du Mingzhu's eyes, making her ugly face look even more ferocious and terrifying.

The maid hurriedly lowered her head, trying her best to minimize her presence, while her body couldn't help but tremble.

Du Mingzhu's gaze fell on her, and she smiled. "Chenxiang, I haven't seen you for so many days, you've actually grown even prettier."

Chenxiang prostrated herself on the ground. "Slave, slave is hideous..."

"You mean, I'm wrong?" Du Mingzhu's smile faded.

"No, no, no, Miss is never wrong; the one who is wrong is the slave! Slave, slave is getting prettier and prettier..." Seeing her bad complexion, Chenxiang hurriedly changed her words.

The crowd rushed to the threshing ground in a panic, only to be stunned.

She gave a wink to the two rough-working old women standing at the door and said lightly, "There has always been a rule in my room: servants are not allowed to be more beautiful than their mistress. Chenxiang's face is an eyesore to me; slash it twice before letting her come back to serve me."