After being forced into a marriage with a wealthy family, the virtuous wife caused a huge uproar.

"Ah!" came a scream.

"It hurts!" came another cry of pain.

"Qingya, what's wrong?" Su Jingyi was startled and got up to help her up.

"Mom, don't touch me, my knees hurt so much." Gu Qingya burst into tears instantly, feeling extremely aggrieved.

Gu Ce glanced at Rong Yingluo sideways.

Did she do it again?

The corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a smile again.

"Little sister, what happened? Why did you fall down all of a sudden? Did you not sleep well last night?" Rong Yingluo stepped forward and asked with concern, reaching out to help.

"It must be you! I was walking just fine when you tripped me and I fell." Gu Qingya glared at her fiercely.

"Sister, you're wronging me. I heard your voice and immediately moved aside. Besides, even if you fell, you would have fallen on the prayer mat. You couldn't have gotten hurt," Rong Yingluo said innocently.

"Mother, she's the one who tripped me." Gu Qingya was extremely aggrieved.

"Get up quickly." Su Jingyi helped the person up with all her might.

But Gu Qingya couldn't even stand up straight.

Rong Yingluo squatted down to examine the prayer mat. She touched it with her hand and found something sharp under the layer of cloth on the surface of the mat.

She pulled the hairpin from her hair, and with a forceful slash, tore open the cloth covering the surface, revealing what lay beneath: a dozen or so sharp pebbles.

"Mother, someone is trying to harm me! If my sister hadn't thrown herself onto the prayer mat to shield me, I would have been bleeding to death on the spot." Rong Yingluo burst into tears.

"I was wondering why four of my older sisters had died. It turns out there were evil people causing trouble in our Duke's mansion."

Mother, you are the head of the household, you must give me justice.

I've only just married into the family and I'm already being treated like this. How am I supposed to maintain my position in the Duke's mansion?

Just because I'm a female merchant, am I supposed to be bullied like this?

"I am the Crown Prince's wife, whom you carefully selected and even specially requested the Emperor to bestow upon you." Rong Yingluo continued to sob.

Su Jingyi was so flustered by her tearful outburst that she didn't know how to respond.

"Granny Zhao, did you put the prayer mat there? Did you tamper with it?" Gu Ce suddenly questioned sharply.

"Your Highness, I'm innocent! This prayer mat hasn't been used for over a year, nor has it been put away in the storeroom. I guess some servant's child was playing around and stuffed pebbles in it." Granny Zhao was sweating profusely, having been exposed in public, she had no way to hide it.

She never expected that the young lady would pounce on her so forcefully.

In general, when a new bride encounters this situation, she can just endure it and it will pass. If she doesn't kneel down heavily, it won't hurt her too much; at most, it will just hurt a little.

But revealing it in public now would be a bad move.

"Guards, gather all the children in the manor to the main courtyard. I want to question them one by one. If I can't get any information out of them, then it's Zhao Mama who deliberately harmed the young master's wife." Gu Ce had finally gotten such an opportunity, and he was determined to make a big scene.

"A-Ce, let it go. It's all Zhao Mama's fault for not checking beforehand. Fortunately, Liuli wasn't really hurt, but your sister suffered a lot." Su Jingyi smoothed things over.

"Mother, I suspect that it was Zhao Mama who did this."

She looks down on the fact that the wife you chose for your son is a merchant's daughter, and she wants to give her a hard time.

Let her know that not just anyone can be a daughter-in-law of the Duke's mansion.

Although she wanted to speak out for her son, her act of making decisions on her own was a grave crime of deceiving her master. Having seized the opportunity to embarrass Madam Su, how could Gu Ce possibly let it pass?

"Young Master, this old servant is truly innocent." Relying on the support of the Duchess, Granny Zhao refused to admit it.

Rong Yingluo examined the prayer mat more closely and discovered something amiss.

"Mother, it was Zhao Mama who did it. Look, this part was taken apart and then sewn back on. It's the perfect size to put pebbles in. And look at the stitching, it's exactly the same as the stitching on Zhao Mama's clothes. Everyone has their own sewing style, no one can fake it." Rong Yingluo's words were reasonable and well-founded.

Granny Zhao was stunned. How could this merchant girl have such a keen eye?

"Guards, drag Zhao Mama away and give her thirty lashes according to the rules of the manor," Gu Ce ordered directly.

"Ah Ce, Granny Zhao was momentarily bewitched and made a mistake, so let's forgive her this time," Su Jingyi began to play the good cop.

"Mother, I know you can't bear to see Granny Zhao punished, but what if there were small, sharp knives instead of sharp stones under the prayer mat?"

My sister's or my knees would be ruined, and I would be disabled from then on.

This matter cannot be overlooked just because it's only a pebble.

We are a Duke's mansion, not a humble household, and should have strict rules.

My daughter-in-law doesn't believe that you've been so kind and benevolent in managing the Duke's mansion all these years.

Otherwise, the Duke's mansion would have been in chaos long ago, and it wouldn't be as well-organized as your daughter-in-law sees today." Rong Yingluo's words were full of praise for Su Jingyi and also showed that she was thinking of her.

This effectively silenced Su Jingyi, leaving her speechless.

"Drag it away," Gu Ce ordered coldly again.

He'd wanted to deal with that old hag for a long time, but never had the chance. She was the Su family's most loyal dog.

Su Jingyi wanted to stop her but had no reason to, and she was so angry that she gritted her teeth. She gripped the handkerchief in her hand tightly, ignoring her daughter's cries of pain.

Soon, the sounds of boards being struck and screams could be heard outside.

Rong Yingluo and Gu Ce found it very satisfying to hear.

"What's going on?" Gu Xi finally arrived late.

"Second brother, you have no idea how vicious Zhao Mama is by Mother's side. She actually dared to bury stones under the prayer mat," Rong Yingluo kindly told him.

"How is that possible?" Gu Xi said half a sentence, then immediately stopped, almost blurting out "It must have been Mother's order."

The farce ended with Granny Zhao being given twenty lashes.

After changing to a different futon, Rong Yingluo knelt respectfully before Su Jingyi, raising the nearly cold teacup high: "Mother, please have some tea."

No matter how uncomfortable Su Jingyi felt, she had to maintain her image as a kind mother, so she took the tea and sipped it lightly.

After putting down the teacup, she picked up a brocade box from the tray carried by the maid, opened it, and took out a beautiful and translucent white jade bracelet inlaid with gold.

"This is a really nice item that I picked out after a long time. I'm giving it to you today as a gift."

I even went to a temple to have a master bless it. You must wear it carefully, as I heard it can help with fertility.

"A-Ce is already twenty-three. Other men his age already have children starting their education. His father and I have been looking forward to holding our grandson for a long time." As she spoke, Su Jingyi personally put the hairpin on Rong Yingluo.

"Thank you, Mother." Rong Yingluo accepted the gift with a smile, but she could tell at a glance that the jade bracelet had been tampered with. The gold color was slightly dull, and there was a faint fragrance emanating from the bracelet.

Unless you're very familiar with medicine, you generally can't smell it. Wearing this bracelet for so long, does she want to get pregnant? Maybe she'll wait forever.

There are traps everywhere.

I wonder how Gu Ce survived. Does he even know that his stepmother is a two-faced, hypocritical woman?