Chapter 34: Witnessing with One's Own Eyes

Mother Su’s roar made Old Lady Meng stagger. Beside her, Nanny Liu stepped forward to protect her mistress, hands defiantly on her hips.

"A man having a wife and concubines is perfectly normal. What is so wrong with the young master taking a mistress? She is just jealous and unable to tolerate others!"

"She herself can flirt and dally with others, yet she cannot bear our young master having just one mistress? Is that reasonable?"

*Smack!* Nanny Liu’s face was struck hard by Nan Yan. A stinging heat flared as her cheek swelled instantly.

"Try saying one more word of nonsense, if you dare!"

Nan Yan’s sharp, fierce shout left the woman stunned. Seeing the blade-like intensity in Nan Yan’s eyes, Nanny Liu scurried back behind Old Lady Meng in a panic.

Bie Zhi seized the moment to announce to the crowd, "Everyone has heard it! The people around this old woman have admitted it!"

"Their young master truly has a mistress, and he brought her home without our lady's consent!"

"Even if a mistress were to enter the household, without the nod of the legal wife, does she have any right to step through the door?"

The fickle crowd began to waver again.

"So it really was the legal wife who refused to let the mistress in, and that’s why he divorced her to marry someone else!"

"This Scholar Meng, who knelt before the Duke’s mansion looking so devoted, actually kept a mistress all along!"

"Indeed, he broke the very vows he swore himself!"

Bie Zhi pressed her advantage, "All these claims about our lady being a wanton woman, flirting and dallying—it’s all a fabrication by the Meng family, built on absolutely no evidence. It’s baseless! How could anyone believe such things?"

"What if I saw it with my own eyes?"

Meng Boji pushed through the crowd with a group of officers. He walked with a strange, limping gait, his face bruised.

He stepped up to Nan Yan, grinding his teeth. "Do you dare say you weren't with Jiang Li last night?"

Nan Yan raised an eyebrow.

Like a cornered rabbit, Meng Boji’s eyes were bloodshot. "I saw you with your own eyes, dallying with him in the ruined temple—"

He lied without hesitation. Last night, he had clearly led the officers to find her at the ruined temple and chased away the men in black. The officers beside him were the best witnesses!

Nan Yan sneered, ignoring him, and turned to the lead officer, whom she recognized from the previous night.

"Is this the Judicial Officer of the Jingzhao Prefecture, Assistant Lu?"

"That is indeed me!" Assistant Lu cupped his hands over his sword. "Lady Nan, Scholar Meng has accused you of adultery with Jiang Li, claiming he witnessed it himself. Therefore, I am here to summon you..."

Nan Yan raised a hand to interrupt him. "If I recall correctly, I was abducted by assassins last night, and it was Assistant Lu who led his men to rescue me. It is true that Scholar Meng was there, but Assistant Lu, think carefully: was anyone named Jiang Li by my side last night?"

Assistant Lu, feeling the confusion, turned to Meng Boji. "Scholar Meng, last night, aside from you, there was truly no one else near Lady Nan. This..."

"That was only after you, Assistant Lu, led your men to chase the assassins! That lover of hers, Jiang Li, appeared then and beat me severely!"

Meng Boji’s slander flowed effortlessly. "Look at these injuries on me! They are the work of those two!"

The old lady chimed in, "Exactly! My grandson returned last night covered in wounds. He risked his life to save her, yet she conspired with her lover to kill him! This wanton woman is not even human!"

Nan Yan laughed aloud. Her eyes swept over the pair with contempt before locking onto Meng Boji.

"Last night, it was clearly your Meng family who, unwilling to let me take my dowry, poisoned me and sent assassins to seize it..."

"Yes, Meng Boji, you pretended to come with Assistant Lu to save me. After Assistant Lu chased the assassins, you tried to deceive me again, but unfortunately, I saw through your scheme, and you failed."

"As for these injuries on you... do you want me to tell everyone here how they were actually acquired?"

Meng Boji felt a pang of guilt but struck first. "How were they acquired? Wasn't it from the plot you and Jiang Li conspired to carry out?"

"What? Do you mean to suggest I am trying to fabricate that you fell yourself?"

"Actually, you didn't just fall yourself."

A clear, refined voice rang out from beyond the crowd. The people instinctively parted to make way.

At the end of the path stood a man in white robes, holding a white jade flute. He was spotless, possessing the elegant, otherworldly air of an immortal. Beside him walked a handsome young attendant. Both master and servant carried an aura of refined, untouchable grace.

It was Jiang Li and Dan Zhu.

Nan Yan was shocked. She hadn't expected him to show himself at such a critical juncture.

He walked with a graceful gait, coughing softly. His features were as delicate as a painting, his skin so pale it seemed as though a strong wind might shatter him.

Stopping before Meng Boji, he spoke with detached indifference: "I heard Scholar Meng was looking for me?"

Meng Boji froze for a moment, then pointed at him and shouted to Assistant Lu, "That’s him! That is Jiang Li, the lover of this wanton woman!"

"It was him last night! He conspired with her to beat me while you, Assistant Lu, were off chasing the assassins!"

"If I hadn't run quickly, I would surely have died at their hands! Assistant Lu, arrest them both at once!"

"They have committed the crime of adultery. By law, the man should be exiled, and the woman... thrown into a pig cage!"

"All of the woman's dowry must be confiscated as the husband's property, and her natal family must provide compensation to the husband's family—"

So, this was the true purpose of today’s grand spectacle.

Nan Yan laughed again. "So... that is why you, Meng Boji, are still coveting my dowry and the wealth of my Nan family—"

How blind could she have been to believe this beast was a man of letters and high character?

What did talent matter? Even if one became a top scholar, if the core was rotten, the person was rotten!

Just like Meng Boji!

"I am coveting? It is clearly you whose affair I caught, and now you want to kill me to silence me—"

Meng Boji refused to back down, rolling up his sleeves to show more bruises to the crowd.

"These injuries are the proof! How can you, this adulterous pair, deny it?"

Assistant Lu’s face turned grim, unable to discern the truth. He could only propose a compromise.

"Since that is the case, I must ask Lady Nan, Young Master Jiang, and Scholar Meng to accompany me to the Jingzhao Prefecture office."

"We will investigate the truth and get to the bottom of this. We will not wrong any party."

Old Lady Meng was indignant. "My grandson is the victim! Why must he be taken to court for questioning?!"

"If you are going to investigate, you should first seize all the dowry and property that this wanton woman took!"

This family—for the sake of money and power—had completely discarded all sense of shame!

Nan Yan would not be coerced. She glared at them, her eyes cold. "Who dares?!"

"This is the Duke’s mansion. I want to see who dares to act recklessly here—"

Meng Boji sneered, "Assistant Lu, you see? Relying on the influence of the Duke’s mansion, she doesn't even hold the Jingzhao Prefecture in her eyes!"