The cicadas of midsummer screeched with a piercing, grating intensity. Outside the ancestral hall of the Marquis's Mansion, Madame Li knelt on the scorching bluestone, her hair disheveled and her forehead burned a bright, angry red by the sun. She gripped the hem of the Marquis’s robe so tightly that her nails nearly pierced the fabric. "My lord, I beg you, for the sake of the twenty years we have spent as husband and wife, spare Rou'er this time! She is young and knows no better..."
"Knows no better?" The Marquis jerked his hand away, his sleeve brushing across Madame Li’s cheek. "Cursing the Crown Prince is a crime that warrants the execution of nine generations! If she had succeeded, the entire Marquis's Mansion would have been buried along with her!" He was shaking with rage; the jade pendant at his waist struck the copper door with a sound that was crisp yet cold and unforgiving.
Madame Li staggered and collapsed to the ground, her tears streaking through the dust on her face. "My lord, Rou'er is your own flesh and blood! She was merely confused, her mind clouded by villains..." She suddenly turned her head, glaring viciously at Jiang Wan, who stood beneath the veranda. "It’s all that wretched girl! Ever since she entered the Marquis's Mansion, Rou'er has not had a single day of peace!"
Chapter 76