Chapter 243: Argument
Gu Jiaojiao fell asleep within minutes. After all, she was exhausted from the long surgery.
Meanwhile, the two people on her mind, Song Zijin and Sheng Yueyue, were in the middle of a heated argument. Every light in the Song family’s home was blazing.
After seeing off the last of their guests, Boss Song and his wife prepared some expensive gifts and went to the hospital to see Sheng Shiwen.
After all, he had been injured at their home, and worse, the one who hurt Sheng Shiwen was a woman caught up in their son’s romantic drama.
When Mr. Sheng saw them carrying so many expensive gifts, he had no intention of accepting them. He spoke to Boss Song and his wife.
"Song, I know you enjoy giving gifts as a social custom, but there are government regulations now. Gifts exchanged between us can’t be too valuable.
If they exceed a certain value, it could be considered bribery. It’s not that we don’t appreciate nice things.
Please, don’t get us into trouble. Just take these things back, and let’s not do anything that toes the line like this in the future.
What if we get caught? It would be a huge mess, not to mention incredibly embarrassing."
Boss Song said awkwardly, "Brother Sheng, it’s nothing too valuable. We just bought a little something for our nephew, Xiao Wen..."
Mrs. Sheng furiously cut Boss Song off. "Get out! Get out! All of you, get out of here! My son doesn’t need your phony visit."
"Instead of wasting your time here, why don’t you go home and teach that son of yours some manners? What kind of man abandons his bride to run off with another woman?"
Boss Song’s expression soured at Mrs. Sheng’s scolding, but he couldn’t refute her. All he could do was apologize. "I’m sorry, Brother Sheng and Sister-in-law Sheng."
"What good is ’sorry’? My Xiao Wen has broken ribs and a shattered kneecap! We don’t even know if he’ll ever be able to walk normally again!"
Mrs. Sheng wiped away tears as she spoke, her hair disheveled, a complete mess.
Although Mr. Sheng felt his wife was going too far, he didn’t try to stop her. He simply patted her back comfortingly.
"Cui Ping, try not to worry too much. With Divine Doctor Jiang treating him personally, Xiao Wen will be alright."
"Is he going to be fine just because you say so? If it weren’t for the mess Song Zijin started, would my son be suffering like this?"
Hearing Mrs. Sheng’s words, Boss Song felt a pang of guilt. After all, this really wasn’t Sheng Shiwen’s fault.
But Aunt Song was not one to be trifled with either. "What’s the use of all this crying and wailing now?"
"You should have raised your daughter better! If she hadn’t been so arrogant and slapped someone first, would Divine Doctor Jiang’s granddaughter have retaliated against her?"
Mrs. Sheng, seething with rage, shot back, "How dare you make excuses? My daughter is gentle and kind-hearted. How could she possibly do something like that?"
"If it weren’t for that messy affair your son got himself into, would any of this have happened?"
"It must be Divine Doctor Jiang’s granddaughter! She was jealous of my Yueyue’s beauty and wanted to ruin her!"
Song Mu flew into a rage at that, pointing a finger at Mrs. Sheng and screaming, "If your daughter hadn’t been so improper, would our families have been forced into this marriage? And if we hadn’t, who would have beaten your son up like this?"
Boss Song was alarmed when he heard his wife’s words. He quickly pulled Aunt Song back, clamping a hand over her mouth to shut her up.
Mrs. Sheng was furious. "Aunt Song, what are you talking about? What is that supposed to mean?"
"Instead of apologizing properly, you’re blaming my daughter? Do you want our children to get a divorce?"
With her mouth covered, Aunt Song could only let out muffled shouts while Boss Song apologized profusely.
"Sister-in-law Sheng, please calm down. No matter what, this was our Zijin’s fault."
"We’ll go home and straighten him out right now. I promise you, he won’t make a mistake like this again."
Mrs. Sheng exploded. "You want there to be a ’next time’? You people..."
"Ren Cuiping, shut your mouth! Will you ever stop?" Mr. Sheng roared wearily.
Seizing the opportunity, Boss Song dragged his fuming wife away. The apology had ended on a sour note.
But when they returned home, they were greeted by the sounds of smashing and crashing coming from the newlyweds’ room.
Aunt Song pushed the door open to find that more than half of the furnishings she had so carefully chosen had been smashed. She was so furious she nearly fainted.
She had just endured Mrs. Sheng’s tantrum at the hospital, and now she came home to this daughter-in-law. Aunt Song was filled with immense regret.
’If I’d known it would turn out like this,’ she thought, ’my son would have been better off marrying Divine Doctor Jiang’s granddaughter.’
Aunt Song immediately ordered her daughter, Song Dan, to go get Sheng Yueyue’s parents and have them take their daughter home.
Song Zijin saw that Mr. Song, Grandpa Sheng, his own parents, and his father-in-law had all arrived.
He immediately dropped to his knees to admit his fault. "Grandpa, Grandpa Sheng, Dad, Mom, Father-in-law... it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have let Jiang Ruyan bewitch me."
Sheng Yueyue, on the other hand, not only refused to admit any wrongdoing but also started cursing arrogantly, calling Jiang Ruyan a "bitch" right in front of the elders.
She claimed she was also a victim and launched a preemptive strike, accusing Song Zijin of being inhuman and hurling every nasty insult she could think of.
Her arrogant expression was infuriating. Her haughty demeanor wasn’t noble; it was just gaudy and vulgar.
The two grandfathers closed their eyes, unable to watch. Just looking at the scene made their blood pressure spike, and they felt their lungs might burst with anger.
Boss Song and his wife were also seething. Aunt Song thought that, at this moment, Sheng Yueyue was the spitting image of Ren Cuiping.
Seeing his daughter acting like a shrew, Mr. Sheng knew that if this continued, it would surely end in divorce.
He strode forward and slapped her across the face several times. "Yueyue, have you forgotten every single thing you’ve ever learned?"
"Dad! You... you hit me? After I’ve been wronged so terribly today, you hit me instead of helping me?"
"The hatred of having one’s husband stolen is irreconcilable! What’s so wrong about me slapping that bitch a few times?"
Sheng Yueyue cupped one hand to her cheek and pointed at Mr. Sheng with the other, her face a mask of disbelief.
Her cheek stung, slapped repeatedly by her own father in front of everyone.
A wave of humiliation, as sharp as being stripped naked in public, washed over her. She stood frozen, feeling like she was about to shatter.
In her red dress, she looked like a being that had clawed its way out of hell, gazing down upon the world from amidst a field of blooming spider lilies.
She, Sheng Yueyue, had never been so utterly humiliated. Her so-called friends had told her.
The women in their residential compound were all gossiping behind her back, calling her shameless for stealing her adopted sister’s fiancé.
They said she had the gall to marry Song Zijin, only for him to nearly abandon her at the altar to marry someone else.
That’s why she had confronted Song Zijin, but not only was he unrepentant, he even said she wasn’t as beautiful as Ru Yan to begin with.
It made her so angry that her only outlet was to smash things in their new room. ’What did I do wrong?’
And then her dad showed up and, without even trying to understand the situation, slapped her several times.
What was worse, her mother was at the hospital taking care of that moron brother of hers, and there was no one in the Song family to coddle her.
At that moment, Sheng Yueyue was like an enraged lioness, screaming hysterically.
But what she didn’t know was that Aunt Song had summoned the elders from both families specifically to discuss the children’s marriage.
They hadn’t even registered their marriage yet. At that moment, Aunt Song stood frozen.
She had no idea if she should voice her intentions. All she knew was that everything that had happened today had left her utterly incensed.