Chapter 168: The Ning Estate Refused Entry

The heavy atmosphere inside the room left Yu Youwei feeling suffocated. Without saying goodbye to anyone, she walked out, stepped onto the street, and wandered aimlessly.

"Sister-in-law!"

A voice called out from the ready-made garment shop across the street. Ning Ruotong emerged, fluttering like a light-winged butterfly, and pulled Yu Youwei onto a waiting carriage by the roadside. Since returning from the palace, smiles had become much more frequent on her face. Deeply grateful to Yu Youwei for untying the knot in her heart, she knew full well that Yu Youwei had stormed out of the Ning estate and that the matriarch had forbidden her entry; yet, she still took the risk of angering her grandmother to bring Yu Youwei back to the mansion.

Riding the carriage through the eastern side gate, the guards at the entrance remained unaware, and no one intercepted them. However, upon reaching the ceremonial moon gate, the matronly servants stationed at the second gate stubbornly refused to let Yu Youwei pass.

Liu, the senior matron in charge of the second gate, warned, "Second Miss, have you forgotten the Old Mistress's orders?"

"I am merely taking my sister-in-law to see Grandmother to make amends. If Grandmother wishes to punish someone, she can punish me. It has nothing to do with any of you. Step aside!" Ning Ruotong demanded sternly.

Matron Liu and the others still refused to budge, offering all sorts of persuasive arguments to convince Ning Ruotong to stay out of the matter.

The commotion at the ceremonial moon gate quickly drew a crowd of onlookers. Members of the eldest branch simply watched the spectacle without a word, while those of the second branch pointed and whispered at Yu Youwei, chiming in with all sorts of remarks.

Ning Ruoying hurried over, tugging at her elder sister's sleeve and hissing, "Second Sister, have you lost your mind? Grandmother explicitly said she didn't want her in the estate! If you bring her inside, you'd better watch out or Grandmother will tear a strip off you!"

Yu Youwei had been distracted the entire time. Only then did she snap back to reality. She glanced sideways at Ning Ruoying, turned around in silence, and began to walk away, only to be yanked back by Ning Ruotong. "Sister-in-law, don't leave. I'll stay right here with you until Grandmother forgives you."

She desperately wanted to ask, *What did I even do wrong that I need to wait for Grandmother's forgiveness?* But meeting Ning Ruotong's anxious, pleading eyes, the words caught in her throat. She stood there passively, wearing an expression as though none of this concerned her at all.

The Second Old Mistress also arrived upon hearing the news. Though her face remained etched with illness, she shrieked at the top of her lungs, "The Ning family has a daughter-in-law who brings such disgrace upon our lineage—she deserves to be beaten to death!"

Word reached the Jing'an Hall, and the Old Mistress, deeming the scene at the moon gate unsightly, instructed Mother Qi to bring Yu Youwei and Ning Ruotong before her. Denying them entry into the main room, she ordered both Yu Youwei and Ning Ruotong to kneel in the courtyard.

The accumulated snow on the ground had long since melted, leaving the earth damp and slick. Ning Ruotong knelt down without a moment's hesitation, forcefully dragging the preoccupied Yu Youwei down with her.

The instant her knees touched the ground, Yu Youwei’s legs stiffened abruptly. She pulled Ning Ruotong back up to her feet and declared, "I am leaving."

"Do you still want to run off and make a laughingstock of the Ning family, a laughingstock of our seventh branch?" Madame Liu stepped out from the Jing'an Hall, standing upon the threshold to berate her with righteous indignation.

Was this woman going to trample over her yet again just to polish her own virtuous reputation? Lacking the mood to trade barbs, Yu Youwei said indifferently, "Where is Mofei? Have him send me a letter of divorce."

Instead of pleading for mercy, she was brazenly demanding a divorce letter? Madame Liu's fury instantly erupted. "Does the Ning family look like some place you can waltz in and out of as you please?"

Yu Youwei’s mood soured even further. A flash of wicked, mesmerizing brilliance crossed her deep pupils, and with a humorless smile, she retorted, "Ning Mofei is my husband, not yours, as far as I recall. The affairs of us husband and wife are hardly your place to meddle in."

"Audacious!" A furious roar echoed from inside the room as the Old Mistress bellowed, "Yu Youwei, you are truly incorrigible! The Ning family has been far too lenient with you! Today, I shall personally teach you the rules of the Ning family. Even if you are to be given a letter of divorce, it will only be after you have received your due punishment! Someone, seize this shrew and give her twenty strokes with a heavy staff to see if she acknowledges her wrongdoing!"

When the commotion at the moon gate first broke out, Zhuiyi and Lanyi, the maidservants sent to Yu Youwei by the Fourth Madame Yu, caught wind of the situation. One hurriedly rushed out of the estate to inform the Fourth Madame Yu, while the other set off to find Ning Mofei.

After Yu Youwei left, to prevent Ning Mofei from searching for her, Madame Liu had welcomed her maternal cousin, Wen Tingting, into the estate to keep him company. At the same time, she dispatched a letter to her mother-in-law, Madame Yu, not only lodging malicious complaints against Yu Youwei but also harboring the intention of marrying her cousin off to Ning Mofei as an equal wife.

The Wen family was also among the top ten aristocratic clans of the Qian Dynasty. Wen Tingting was the legitimate daughter of the Wen family's third branch. In her youth, she had frequently visited Madame Liu and grown very close to her. Initially, Madame Liu had contemplated matching her cousin with Ning Baixia. Later, however, Ning Baixia successfully weathered his tribulation, becoming the youngest Golden Core cultivator in the Eastern Continent. Knowing her cousin’s lineage fell short of matching Ning Baixia, and happening to coincide with Yu Youwei's string of scandals that had enraged the Old Mistress, Madame Liu shifted her sights toward Ning Mofei, intending to secure her cousin the position of equal wife and eventually squeeze Yu Youwei out of the Ning estate entirely.

With Ning Baixia bathed in boundless glory, his beloved, simple-minded younger brother also basked in the reflected prestige. Not only was Wen Tingting willing to become Ning Mofei's equal wife, but the elders of her family also maintained a tacit, approving stance.

Ever since moving into the Ning estate, Wen Tingting had exhausted every trick in the book to humor Ning Mofei, successfully distracting him within two days so that he no longer made a fuss about looking for Yu Youwei. Whenever he casually mentioned, "How come Youwei still isn't back?", she would simply reply, "She'll be back soon," and he would drop the subject entirely.

Lanyi found Ning Mofei in the Crabapple Courtyard where Wen Tingting was residing. He was squatting on the ground with his backside in the air, watching ants move their nest alongside Wen Tingting, the two of them laughing and playing merrily.

"Young Master, the Young Mistress is being blocked at the gate and won't be allowed in!" Lanyi cried out in anxiety.

"What kind of nonsense is this sister talking about?" Wen Tingting grabbed Ning Mofei to keep him from standing up, tilting her head back with a bright smile. "When the sister-in-law comes home, how could anyone block her? Who sent you here to trick Brother Mofei? Humpph, Brother Mofei is the smartest, he won't be fooled!"

Ning Mofei, whose mental capacity matched that of a young child, was utterly incapable of perceiving Wen Tingting's malicious intentions. Without even turning his head, he blurted out, "I won't be tricked! Off you go, I won't believe you."

"That's right, Brother Mofei would never believe it. Such a childish lie—even if you told it to a pig, a pig wouldn't believe it," Wen Tingting clapped her hands and laughed.

Seeing that Ning Mofei refused to believe her, Lanyi grew frantic. She stepped forward, grabbed him, and tried to pull him out of the courtyard. "Young Master, I beg you to go and see for yourself. The Young Mistress is truly being blocked at the ceremonial moon gate!"

"Let go of him!" Wen Tingting leaped to her feet, her hand chopping down like a blade against Lanyi’s forearm. Taking advantage of Lanyi’s flinch from the pain, she yanked Ning Mofei back and screamed, "She's an assassin! Catch her quickly!"

Everyone in the Crabapple Courtyard had been handpicked by Madame Liu and naturally sided with Wen Tingting. They all swarmed forward to capture Lanyi.

Having served by the Fourth Madame Yu's side, Lanyi’s cultivation had already reached the mid-stage of Qi Condensation. However, the cultivators placed in the Crabapple Courtyard by Madame Liu were also at the Qi Condensation stage. As their hands clashed, flowers flew, tree branches snapped, accompanied by the shrieks of maidservants and footmen, plunging the courtyard into absolute chaos.

Ning Mofei had no inkling of why a fight had suddenly broken out, let alone why it was so vicious. Yet, he at least remembered that Lanyi served his own wife, so he yelled in panic, "Stop hitting Lanyi!"

"She's an assassin, she was just trying to take you hostage! Brother Mofei, it's dangerous here, let's go!" Not giving Ning Mofei a chance to speak, Wen Tingting dragged him out of the Crabapple Courtyard.

Just as they cleared the courtyard gates, Ning Mofei turned his head and happened to see a sword pierce straight through Lanyi’s chest. As the blade was wrenched free, a stream of dazzling, crimson blood sprayed into the air...