"You... You're still pretending!"
Unable to contain her fury any longer, Kang staggered forward and lunged at the table. She grabbed Li Wanming's shoulders forcefully with both hands, her bright red nail polish almost digging into Li's skin.
Her voice was hoarse and shrill. "Those festival gifts... Those things were clearly full of malicious intent! How dare you use them to allude to what happened back then... How dare you!"
"What happened back then? What exactly happened back then?"
A gust of night wind blew through the hall, making the silver-threaded dragon-patterned beads beside Li Wanming's ears sway gently. The silver glimmers were like a dragon that had been lying in wait for a long time, slowly stretching out its claws and teeth.
"Auntie's words really confuse this niece-in-law."
A smile played on her lips, but her voice grew colder. She used force and pried Kang's fingers off one by one.
"The festival gifts for the Dragon Boat Festival this time were prepared with Auntie's help. Auntie personally checked every single item - this is known to everyone in the city, and people all praise Auntie for her virtue..."
"I suppose that even if there were any omissions in the preparation of the gifts, no one would blame me. Because they all think it was Auntie's instruction."
"You!"
Kang let out a shrill scream. Her face suddenly turned deathly pale, as if all the blood had been drained from her body.
She realized it. "You did it on purpose... Right? You deliberately sent those bitter zongzi, the cracked necklace, and that screen. The poem written on it, you did it just to... just to..."
"Just to what?" Li Wanming suddenly grabbed her wrist, a half-smile on her face. "Just to what, Auntie? Do tell."
Kang fell silent. Her eyes widened in horror, and she let out a gurgling sound in her throat, but couldn't utter a single syllable.
Li Wanming's hand was like an iron hoop. Her fingertips dug into Kang's wrist, leaving crescent-shaped marks, and she wouldn't let Kang back away even a single step.
"Does Auntie want to say that the zongzi, the necklace, and the screen... all of them are mocking Marquis Guangyi for having an affair with another woman and getting her pregnant while his wife was still alive? Later, he even forced his own daughter to death and drove his own son to carry a coffin to the palace and demand to sever the father-son relationship? What a shameless act!"
Li Wanming's pupils were pitch-black, and every word dripped with blood.
Cold sweat streamed down Kang's forehead. "What are you talking nonsense about... How dare you... How dare you..."
"If he dared to do it, why shouldn't I dare to say it?"
Li Wanming raised her arm and flung Kang aside forcefully.
"For a person like him, I've already given him a great deal of face by sending the festival gifts! Should I also send a picture of a loving father and son to praise the Hou family for their conjugal love and filial piety?"
As the twilight deepened, the candlelight in the copper sparrow lamp swayed gently, casting a strange shadow on Li Wanming's profile.
Suddenly, she leaned down and gently stroked the stray hairs beside Kang's temple. Her movement was as gentle as if she were comforting a frightened kitten. However, the smile on her lips was chillingly cold.
"However, Auntie, this niece-in-law has to remind you of one thing."
"Now everyone in the city knows that you helped me prepare the Dragon Boat Festival gifts for our Ningwang Mansion. In the eyes of the Marquis Guangyi's Mansion, the zongzi with lotus seed cores and the cracked necklace must be your idea."
"It's okay for you to say these words to me today. But after you leave here, don't mention what happened back then again. Otherwise, Marquis Guangyi will surely think that you're deliberately mocking him!"
Kang's face was as pale as paper. The bloodshot eyes were like cobwebs, and her gaze gradually turned venomous, as if she wanted to tear Li Wanming to pieces.
"You... You bitch!"
Her lips trembled, and she let out a shrill roar.
Li Wanming's words were like a sharp dagger, directly piercing through Kang's embarrassment at the palace banquet today.
As soon as she entered the palace today, the wife of Marquis Guangyi gave her a cold look and didn't even bother to exchange a few words.
When the palace banquet started and Marquis Guangyi entered the hall, he mercilessly scolded her in front of all the guests in the hall. He even almost splashed the wine on the dining table on her face.
Kang felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave at that moment. Her mind went blank, and she shivered like a stray dog driven out of the house in the cold winter. She had no idea what on earth had gone wrong.
It was not until the continuous sarcasm from the wife of Marquis Guangyi drilled into her ears like a venomous snake that she gradually pieced together a general idea from those harsh words: there was something wrong with the Dragon Boat Festival gifts.
But... How could it be?
She had clearly checked the gift lists for each mansion - why would it make Marquis Guangyi so angry that he didn't hesitate to tear the veil with the Ningwang Mansion in the imperial palace?
Kang quickly asked Nanny Chen to inquire from the attendant of Marquis Guangyi's family. After stuffing a lot of silver, she found out that Li Wanming had made subtle changes to each gift in the Dragon Boat Festival gifts sent this time, just like a carefully designed knife, directly pointing at Marquis Guangyi's ugly deeds of being heartless and abandoning his wife and children back then!
Especially the brocade silk screen with the picture of two cranes holding a fish. There was a poem written on the back: "The halls are filled with gold and jade tonight, yet the cries of the phoenix can still be heard from the tomb." These lines were like a resounding slap on Marquis Guangyi's face, questioning whether he still remembered his unjustly dead wife and daughter under the tomb on this day of wealth and honor!
When Kang heard this, her legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to the ground.
She hurriedly wanted to go to Marquis Guangyi and his wife to explain, but it was already too late.
Thanks to Li Wanming's high-profile publicity before, now the whole capital knew that she had personally taken charge of the Dragon Boat Festival gifts, and every gift was given with her instruction.
Marquis Guangyi and his wife were already certain that this was her deliberate act!
Kang was unable to defend herself. She could only watch as Marquis Guangyi's anger burned more and more fiercely, almost burning her to ashes.
The commotion in the hall was too great, and it naturally alerted Empress Dowager Kang.
But before Kang could even open her mouth to explain, Marquis Guangyi had already knelt down with a thud, tears streaming down his old face.
"Your Majesty, please see clearly! This old official has had a really hard life!"
"My wife passed away early, leaving me all alone. And I even raised a rebellious son! Because of a few words of instigation from others, he refused to recognize me as his father!"
"Although that rebellious son refused to recognize me, he was still my flesh and blood. When the news of his death on the battlefield came, I almost fainted in the mourning hall... Later, the court and the public all pitied my pain of losing my wife in middle age and my son in old age, and no one mentioned this matter anymore. Those rumors gradually subsided. Over the years, I finally managed to get out of the grief, and life finally became a bit more stable..."
"Unexpectedly," he suddenly raised his head, his trembling finger pointing directly at Kang, his eyes wide with anger. "This poisonous woman dug out those baseless rumors again through the Dragon Boat Festival gifts! Xiao Kang, what's your intention! Do you have to drive this old man to death before you're satisfied!"
"I... I didn't..." Kang was so frightened that she trembled and couldn't say a single word.