Chapter 160
Bao Shuyi blinked her big eyes and called out uncertainly, "Sister-in-law?"
"Shushu still remembers her sister-in-law." Ye Yunniang was pleasantly surprised; she had thought Bao Shuyi had already forgotten her.
"Pan'er and the other two mention you in front of her every day. They were afraid Shushu would forget you, and you'd be sad," Cai Damei explained from the side.
"Sister-in-law, Shushu misses you," Bao Shuyi said, hugging Ye Yunniang.
"I miss Shushu too," Ye Yunniang replied, rubbing her cheek against Shushu's little face.
Bao Shuyi giggled from the rubbing.
Seeing this scene, Jiang Mingzhe sighed inwardly, Why didn't I have a daughter?
Thinking of that brat Li Ping, who, after getting a beating, would yell about raising eight or ten concubines for his mother in the future.
Li Pan and Li An also clamored for Ye Yunniang to keep several concubines too.
Those three little brats really wouldn't be satisfied until they drove him to his grave.
With her mother and sons by her side, Ye Yunniang was in no hurry to continue the journey.
Cai Damei's leg was injured, so they settled down temporarily in the nearest county town.
Those who followed them to the county town also included Jiang Mingrui, Zhuang Meixue, and the others rescued from the bandit den.
As for the bandits, Li Ping took the initiative to lead some men to the magistrate's office.
"What is Pingping going to do?"
Ye Yunniang was puzzled.
"To earn the bounty," Jiang Mingzhe explained.
The bandits had been entrenched there for years. Many travelers passing through the county had been robbed.
The magistrate's office had long wanted to deal with them but suffered from a lack of manpower. The mountain path where the bandits were located was quite rugged, easy to defend and hard to attack.
This had dragged on until Jiang Mingzhe's men arrived.
Having traveled extensively with Jiang Mingzhe, encountering countless bandits and river pirates, the guards had long developed a set of skilled methods for handling such situations.
Looking at the captured bandits, Li Ping asked just one question.
"Is there a bounty on them?"
Hearing that there was, he volunteered to be the one to turn them in.
The guards all knew about Li Ping's background—he was their future young master.
Of course, they had no objections. They escorted the traffickers and followed their young master to the magistrate's office.
"You just spoil him," Ye Yunniang said, exasperated.
Just yesterday, this man had told her they needed to discipline Li Ping properly.
Today, he arranged for him to go earn bounty money.
How foolish would the magistrate's office have to be to believe a five-year-old child captured so many bandits?
Jiang Mingzhe also wanted to be strict, but looking at Li Ping, who resembled Ye Yunniang by half,
and thinking that he was the child Ye Yunniang carried for ten months and bore with hardship, he couldn't bring himself to be harsh.
"I have money and men. As long as he doesn't poke a hole in the sky, I can handle it for him."
Ye Yunniang was so angry she didn't want to talk to Jiang Mingzhe and went to find Cai Damei.
She needed to have a good discussion with Cai Damei about how to educate the children.
She couldn't count on Jiang Mingzhe to discipline them.
On her way to find Cai Damei, Ye Yunniang was stopped by Zhuang Meixue.
Zhuang Meixue looked Ye Yunniang up and down, unable to understand why Jiang Mingzhe had taken a liking to her.
Not to mention Zhuang Meixue herself, even the maidservants previously arranged for Jiang Mingzhe were all prettier than Ye Yunniang, more charming, more alluring...
"What kind of sorcery do you know?"
"Huh?" Ye Yunniang widened her eyes. What nonsense was Zhuang Meixue talking about?
"Dark skin, small eyes, thin lips, flat nose, not an ounce of flesh on your whole body. You look ugly no matter how you see it. What exactly attracted Jiang Mingzhe to you?" Zhuang Meixue disparaged Ye Yunniang thoroughly.
Don't get angry, don't get angry... Mother said getting angry is punishing yourself and making your enemy happy.
Ye Yunniang suppressed the fury in her heart and raised a smile.
"I may not be pretty, but Jiang Mingzhe just likes me.
Jiang Mingzhe told me that the moment he saw me, he fell in love. He dreams of no one but me.
He also said I am the best, best, best, best woman he has ever met in his life.
That winning my affection is the most, most, most, most fortunate thing to ever happen to him." Ye Yunniang used several "mosts" to express Jiang Mingzhe's love for her.
"You're talking nonsense," Zhuang Meixue didn't believe it; Jiang Mingzhe would never say such mushy things.
"Whether I'm talking nonsense, you know best. As his ex-wife, you lived with him for more than a year. You should understand his character."
Ye Yunniang smiled triumphantly, aiming to infuriate Zhuang Meixue for daring to call her ugly.
How was she ugly?
If the tiger doesn't show its might, they really think it's a sick cat.
"Slut." Zhuang Meixue was angered by Ye Yunniang's words and reached out to slap her.
Ye Yunniang was a step ahead and slapped Zhuang Meixue across the face first.
"No matter how low I am, I can't compare to you. Seducing your brother-in-law, abandoning your husband and child."
Thinking of the state Jiang Tingjun was in when he first appeared at Sunset Lane, Ye Yunniang couldn't help but give Zhuang Meixue another slap.
Symmetrical on both sides—now she felt better.
Zhuang Meixue covered her face,
unable to believe she had been hit. She raised her hand to strike back.
Ye Yunniang wouldn't just stand there to be hit; she stepped back to dodge. As Zhuang Meixue lunged at her, she stuck out her leg.
Zhuang Meixue didn't notice, and with a thud,
fell heavily to the ground.
"Ah—" Zhuang Meixue cried out in pain from the fall.
"Meixue!" Jiang Mingrui heard the noise and ran over, helping Zhuang Meixue up.
Seeing the redness and swelling on Zhuang Meixue's face, he turned to look at Ye Yunniang, the only other person present.
"You hit her."
"I hit her, and she deserved it," Ye Yunniang admitted without denial.
"Dare to hit my woman? You're looking for death." Jiang Mingrui raised his hand to strike Ye Yunniang.
Slap! Jiang Mingrui was hit first.
"Second Brother, you hit me!" Jiang Mingrui covered his face, incredulous that Jiang Mingzhe would hit him for some woman of unknown origin.
"You're exactly who I'm hitting," Jiang Mingzhe said, then proceeded to slap Jiang Mingrui several more times in succession.
"Jiang Mingzhe, he's your own brother! You're hitting him for an outsider?" Zhuang Meixue roared at Jiang Mingzhe.
"If not him, then you." Jiang Mingzhe turned and slapped Zhuang Meixue.
"You hit me!" Zhuang Meixue covered her face, equally disbelieving. "Jiang Mingzhe, how could you hit me?"
"You have no shame, running off with another man. Who else should I hit?" Ye Yunniang piped up from behind Jiang Mingzhe.
Thinking of Jin Huifang's tragic death and the wounds on Jiang Tingjun's body, Ye Yunniang felt Zhuang Meixue deserved more beating, a good hard beating.
"I did all that because you forced me to!" Zhuang Meixue accused Jiang Mingzhe. "You would be gone for months, even a year at a time. You left me alone to face the gossip and rumors. Do you know how difficult my life was? If not for Mingrui, I couldn't have survived a single day in that household."
"I was never home all year round, and that was all because of you and your family forcing me." After marrying Zhuang Meixue, Jiang Mingzhe had considered reducing his time away from home to spend more time with her.
But the Zhuang family disagreed. They used Zhuang Meixue to pressure him again and again for money, antique curios, and so on, to grease palms and pull strings.
If he didn't have it or didn't provide it promptly, the Zhuang family would hinder Jiang Mingde's career advancement and the Jiang family's business.
Old Master Jiang doted on and valued his eldest son the most; how could he accept Jiang Mingde's official career being suppressed? He pressured Jiang Mingzhe to expand their territory outside.
Jiang Mingzhe had no choice but to travel all year round doing business, desperately earning money.
When he finally managed to return home once, he found Zhuang Meixue had hooked up with Jiang Mingrui, and they even wanted him to raise their son.