Chapter 241: Grandmother killed the son, the scoundrel father went mad?

Xiuli Jiangjun Fu.

Li Chao Jing saw Pei Lao Furen seated upright on the high hall, his knees went weak and he knelt on the spot.

"Mother, Mother!"

"Seeing you still healthy, my son, I feel relieved..."

Li Chao Jing tugged at the corner of his mouth, trying to force a smile.

But the falseness and strain in that smile made Pei Lao Furen disdainful.

"Seeing I'm not dead, aren't you disappointed?"

Pei Lao Furen folded her sleeves; in this room now only mother and son remained, even Zhang Mama had been sent away by her today.

She coldly stared at her son, her heart already without a ripple.

Li Chao Jing, feeling guilty, dared not raise his head: "Mother, you've misunderstood me. I don't know what Luo'er actually said to you that day."

"But my son was also deceived by that quack Doctor Jiang, he panicked and acted foolishly; besides, you are his only mother—how could he not want you to live?"

"That day after you fainted, my son rushed out to find a way, hoping to go to the palace to beg an Imperial Physician; he never expected Luo'er to be so impulsive, taking you away from the Jiangjun Fu, which led to today's stalemate."

"Moreover, Mother, I never realized this residence was actually yours."

"Xiuli Jiangjun Fu, what a fine name. I heard you once led an all‑female army, so His Majesty granted you the title of Xiuli Jiangjun."

"Yet the glory of this residence, I never knew."

"But it's fine; now that I know, I feel immensely honored..."

Pei Lao Furen could bear no more.

She snatched up the teacup at hand and hurled it: "Shut your mouth!"

The teacup smashed heavily into Li Chao Jing's forehead, blood instantly gushing forth.

Li Chao Jing clutched at it, incredulously lifting his gaze to Pei Lao Furen: "Mother, are you still angry with me? I really know I was wrong——"

He held back tears, his face full of sorrow; at this moment, struck by his mother's teacup, he felt utterly wronged.

Seeing his pretentious act, Pei Lao Furen felt nauseated.

"You still want to deceive me."

"Li Chao Jing, I may be old, but I'm not senile!"

"Do you think, because I have only you as my son in this world, I would endlessly tolerate you and not bring you to justice!?"

"Li Chao Jing, have you forgotten how you once told me personally that, having a mother like me who is always fighting and killing, lacking gentleness and care, you felt weary and ashamed, and now you come here pretending to be a filial good son?"

"When you were young, you treated Deng Lao Yiniang as your own mother, but toward me you acted as if guarding against a villain, repeatedly pushing me away from your side."

"Your father is just as heartless; for him I bled and nearly died, covered in scars; for him I had to leave you in the care of a concubine; for him I also lost… lost my natal family."

"Yet how has he wronged me?"

"You Li lot, aside from Luo'er, are all white‑eyed wolves—no good at all!"

"I truly regret that, in my youthful vigor, I made the decision to just walk away, thereby letting your father and Deng Lao Yiniang off the hook, and letting you off as well!"

"Otherwise, could the entire Jiangjun Fu still have been ruined by you into this state?"

Li Chao Jing's face gradually turned pale.

"Mother, you, you say this—it's really too much!"

"Father has always missed you; even on his deathbed, his deepest longing was still to see you one more time."

"Back when you willfully left home, how many times did Father come begging to see you? You coldly refused each time."

"My son too… my son also went to see you several times."

"But you keep clinging to the past, unwilling to let go of us or yourself. Otherwise our family wouldn't be like this now—kin not like kin, enemies not like enemies. Hahaha, hahahaha..."

"Mother, the Jiangjun Fu has become like this—could it be that you, as the former mistress, bear no fault? You abandoned husband and children, heedlessly running off for your own carefree pleasure, while I and Father have suffered for years—did you ever know?"

Pei Lao Furen, hearing this, slammed the table hard: "Bullshit!"

"Your father misses me? What a huge joke!"

"Missing me, yet you fathered four concubine children with Deng Lao Yiniang! What fine longing!"

"Back when I was at the Green Pine Temple, he came looking for me several times. I didn't see him; he turned and left. But when I wandered the martial world, if he truly wanted to find me, could he not have?"

"False stuff, pretending to be deep feeling!?"

"Where do you think you're getting off to?"

"If it weren't for Deng Lao Yiniang gradually showing her true colors, if she weren't trying to poison you for her own son, would you think of me? If you couldn't marry a good wife, would you think of me?"

"Li Chao Jing, don't act in front of me either!"

"This time you want to drag me to death—isn't it just for my Heavenly Wind Merchant Firm?"

"Don't think I don't know what you've done; if it weren't for not wanting Luo'er also implicated by you as his father, I could go beat the Drum of Appeals and sue you before His Majesty as a beast intent on killing your own mother!"

As long as she, as his mother, files a single complaint, Li Chao Jing's official career is utterly finished.

But Pei Lao Furen didn't do that, which gave Li Chao Jing a flicker of hope again, thinking she still considered him and couldn't bear to do so.

Now hearing his mother say this, Li Chao Jing went limp, his face ashen as he sat on the ground.

"You, you can't treat me like this…… you can't!"

"Mother, you don't know what my son has encountered; his actions were forced, you can't destroy him!"

"Just help me, please."

"You're right; when we were little, it was all my son's foolishness, his mistake, he truly knows he was wrong…… but Mother, you should also help my son, Mother——sniffle sniffle."

Li Chao Jing cried while crawling to Pei Lao Furen's leg, he clung to her leg and sobbed bitterly.

"You only have this one son of mine, Mother……"

"Even if it's for Luo'er, you can't stand by and watch our family truly be wiped out; for Luo'er's sake, you must also help my son……"

Pei Lao Furen looked at Li Chao Jing with a blank face as he continued his performance.

Until he suddenly raised his arm, Pei Lao Furen had already moved first, pressing a dagger against his throat.

Li Chao Jing froze completely.

"Ah, Mother!?"

This time, the disbelief in his eyes was completely genuine.

Only then did Pei Lao Furen see that Li Chao Jing raising his hand was merely to wipe away a tear.

She, however, thought his recent move to come over and hug her was merely an attempt to seize the chance to kill her.

She also thought he might be hiding a weapon……

But in fact, the only one holding a weapon today was herself.

Pei Lao Furen suddenly laughed, 'Ha ha ha'.

The endless coldness in her eyes already made clear her attitude today.

She did not lower the dagger, but pressed forward harder: "Li Chao Jing, I said before, I should have long ago killed you myself."

"Mother..."

Li Chao Jing stared, tears streaming.

"It's the son who's sorry, Mother..."

He suddenly lifted his head and closed his eyes.

At this moment, he seemed to have accepted fate's arrangement; if he were truly to die at Mother's hand, then dying would just be dying.

Pei Lao Furen watched his suddenly calm expression, yet hesitated to act.

She knew she should ruthlessly cut through.

Only one cut was needed, and everything would end.

She had long since braced herself mentally.

I must today kill this wicked son, lest he continue to bring disaster to Luo Er!

And Luo Er will surely avenge herself, feuding to the death with her father!

Killing my son is better than Luo Er someday killing her father; let me bear all this guilt!

But suddenly, fragments from long ago flashed clear in her mind.

The child she bore after ten months of pregnancy, the little baby crying and laughing in her arms, the tiny one who had just sprouted teeth and patted its little hands while lying against her……

Pei Lao Furen, tears streaming, raised the dagger—but before it could fall, Zhang Mama rushed in shouting, 'Old Lady, something's wrong!'

"They say that over at the West City ruined temple, the Eldest Young Master was discovered, together with a gang of beggars and the Young Master of the Qu family… doing… that sort of thing!"

"Now, now, the matter hasn't spread yet, but I fear it can't be kept hidden…"

Li Chao Jing jerked his eyes open.

He thought he had misheard the words.

Why couldn't he understand?

"What does 'Chuan Er' mean, with a bunch of beggars and the Qu family's Young Master, doing that thing—what exactly is that thing!!"

Li Chao Jing swept aside Pei Lao Furen's hand, turned his head with a twisted face and shouted at Zhang Mama: "What nonsense are you spouting!!?"

Zhang Mama: "It's like this. The eldest son originally made an appointment with the Qu family's young master, saying he would also have the Liu brothers lure the eldest daughter out."

The eldest son plotted to ruin the eldest daughter's purity in the abandoned temple west of the city.

But somehow it ended up with the eldest son himself and a group of men coupling in the abandoned temple...

Li Chao Jing, as if gone mad, rose and ran out, grabbed a sword in the courtyard and came back slashing.

"You old thing, I won't let you spout nonsense!! If you keep talking nonsense, I'll kill you——"

Li Chao Jing's eyes were bloodshot, he looked like he was about to go mad.

Pei Lao Furen immediately shouted: "Seize him!"

Li Chao Jing, however, brandished his sword and began hacking wildly around the house to vent.

"Ah!! This isn't real——no!!"

"Mother, you're fabricating lies to deceive me, aren't you? You're deliberately trying to trick me, wanting me to face this in a fate worse than death——"

Pei Lao Furen: "Hurry up and seize him!"

Zhang Mama, together with the other mamas, recklessly lunged forward again.

It took great effort to press Li Chao Jing to the ground.

Li Chao Jing began to laugh maniacally: "Hahaha... hahaha... hahahaha..."

"Brother kills sister——sister harms brother——"

"Son kills mother——mother kills son——"

"We really are a family, truly a family!!"

"We're all madmen, we're not human——not human but beasts, beasts!!"

"Hahaha... hahahaha..."

Zhang Mama looked at Pei Lao Furen: "Old, Old Lady, could he possibly have gone mad?"