She sighed tiredly and turned to look at Mrs. Xu. "I feel a little uncomfortable. I'm afraid that Mrs. Li can't handle all the things outside by herself. Sister-in-law, I'm sorry to bother you."
She didn't want to get involved before because she didn't want to be dragged into the Zhang family, but now that Mrs. Xu is back, Second Madam Xu certainly couldn't refuse, so she agreed.
Madam Xu rubbed her brows and was about to take a rest when someone outside reported that the Crown Prince's wife was coming.
Zhang Linghui had been ill for quite some time, so ill that she could hardly take care of Xu Tongzhou and Xu Tongji. As a result, she was a little slow in receiving the news. By the time she was ready and packed up, it was already now.
Madam An, another confidant of Madam Xu, was very good at guessing Madam Xu's thoughts and whispered, "If Madam doesn't want to see her, why not just say you're asleep?"
"No need." Madam Xu raised her hand to interrupt and said coldly: "Let her in."
Mother An answered yes without hesitation, helped her sit down again, and went out to greet Zhang Linghui: "Madam, please come in."
"Thank you, mother." Zhang Linghui's face was pale and she was dressed very simply. There was no makeup on her face and her hair was tied up with only a jade hairpin. She politely thanked Mother An and then walked in with the help of a maid.
Madam Xu was stirring the bird's nest porridge in the bowl with a spoon, and the fine ingredients in it were stirred into a small vortex. Zhang Linghui looked at her nose and her heart, and knelt on the ground respectfully, calling softly: "Mother."
Mrs. Xu did not agree. The atmosphere was so heavy that it seemed as if a storm was about to come. Zhang Linghui could hardly hold on and her body began to tremble slightly.
There was a suffocating silence in the room.
Mother An had already quietly retreated with the servants, leaving the place to the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Not long after they left, Mrs. Xu spilled all the bird's nest porridge in her bowl onto Zhang Linghui.
Zhang Linghui screamed.
But she was too weak, and the scream sounded very faint, like the moaning of a kitten.
The mother-in-law was angry. Zhang Linghui felt confused and didn't even have time to think. She burst into tears immediately: "Mom, please forgive me! It's all my fault, please forgive me!"
Madam Xu's eyes were red with anger, she was extremely angry: "I forgive you?! I handed over the management of the Duke's Mansion to you, but look at what you have done?!"
Zhang Linghui cried bitterly. She didn't dare to pretend to be weak in front of Madam Xu. On the contrary, she was really sick this time, but she still insisted on cheering herself up: "Mother, it's my fault, it's my fault, but I didn't design all this, it's really not me!"
She knelt down and grabbed Madam Xu's skirt, her eyes hazy, not caring about anything else, and hurriedly explained: "All this was done by Su Yao and the others, it was Su Yao! Mother, I was wrong, I thought... You know I want to save face, I just, I just want to make the prince happy, so I asked my third brother to teach Su Rong a lesson..."
She had done similar things before, but Mrs. Xu had never paid any attention to it.
She cried and talked about Prince Zhuang again: "I am not just doing this for face, but also for His Highness. When His Highness was chatting with the Crown Prince, he mentioned that he was very interested in the little girl from the Su family. The Crown Prince discussed with me to see if there was any way to kill the girl's prestige. After all, the girl had entered the palace before and was favored by the Imperial Concubine. I was afraid that she would not want to be a concubine, so I thought of this method. Who else can she rely on?"
Zhang Linghui has begun to speak incoherently.
But Mrs. Zhang still understood the general meaning clearly.
She snorted and just wanted to sneer.
But she didn't rush to get angry, she just said calmly: "Go on."
"After Su Rong's incident, all the ladies who came to the banquet disliked Su Yao and ridiculed her. I took this opportunity to hint that if she wanted to be a superior person and not be bullied, there was a best way to go..." Zhang Linghui said with a sob: "But I didn't expect that the Su family had already deliberately retaliated against me and arranged Xiao Cuixian's matter..."
Mrs. Xu had heard about it a long time ago.
She smiled meaningfully.
Zhang Linghui didn't dare to look up at her anymore. She crawled on the ground, crying and mumbling through this part, and then she continued, "That girl too. I had arranged for His Highness to stay at Tingyunxuan before, but she, she somehow used some tricks and ended up going to Tingyunxuan and becoming..."
Of course, she couldn't expect to convince Su Yao to throw himself into her arms with just a few words, and Ting Yunxuan naturally had other plans.
For example, the tea there, the flowers there, and the chessboard there.
Although they are nothing when separated, when put together, they have a very strong aphrodisiac effect.
It’s a pity that the person who went was not the right one, it was Zhang Jingchan.
When talking about this incident till now, Zhang Linghui still feels angry as if she was being played around by others.
Her plan to plot against Su Yao failed, which made her very upset and uneasy.
In her impression, the people of the Su family are either timid and cowardly, or loyal but honest, or like Master Su San, who has evil intentions but no brains.
But I didn't expect Su Yao to be so different.
Mrs. Xu listened to her talking over and over again about how difficult Su Yao was to deal with, how troublesome he was, and how he humiliated her later, but her lips never moved at all.
It was not until Zhang Linghui mentioned Mrs. He that Mrs. Xu lowered her eyes indifferently.
Mrs. He dotes on her granddaughter very much.
She pursed her lips.
Zhang Linghui was almost exhausted from crying.
Seeing Zhang Linghui like this, Madam Xu said coldly: "Get up."
The tone was indifferent, without any emotion.
Zhang Linghui cried and responded, and then she heard Madam Xu say, "Tongzhou and Tongji just came to my place. They were scared, but they were still worried about you."
Children are always a mother's weak point. When Xu Tongzhou and Xu Tongji were mentioned, Zhang Linghui finally couldn't control herself and burst into tears.
She taught her children to be so sensible and kind, why did they have to go through this
To be honest, it’s all the Su family’s fault!
They were so ruthless that they simply chose the day of the Spring Banquet to mess things up. It was obvious that they did it on purpose so that all these people would laugh at her, spurn her from now on, and ruin her reputation.
Zhang Linghui clenched her fists, gritted her teeth in hatred, and her eyes were dry.
Madam Xu just looked at her coldly as she cried and raged, then suddenly she laughed softly.
Under this circumstance, Mrs. Xu actually laughed. Zhang Linghui not only did not feel relieved, but she felt that the hairs on her body stood up, and she felt creepy. She looked at Mrs. Xu in disbelief.
How could Mrs. Xu laugh