"Nonsense!" Cen Liangxuan swallowed hard, meeting Shen Yiren's unyielding gaze.
How did she dare look him straight in the eye?
Shen Qingrui was frantic inside—why on earth hadn't the Heir cleared away the roots when pulling the weeds!
"Yiren, do not slander the Heir." Bearing the gazes of everyone present, she lifted her chin and explained, "It was you who went goodness knows where. When Grandmother and Mother couldn't find you, they asked me to marry in your place."
"Because I was tied up by him." Shen Yiren pointed at Cen Liangxuan again. Recalling the agony before the original owner drew her final breath, a surge of fiery rage shot straight up. "And he wanted to kill me!"
"Rubbish," the Duchess of Anguo said with a cold face. "If my son had truly pushed you off a cliff, how could you be standing here safe and sound?"
Shen Yiren: "?"
Oh!
She had known foxes were cunning, but it turned out humans were even craftier.
No wonder everyone said the human heart was the most malicious thing.
As a Ginseng Spirit experiencing humanity for the very first time, she was utterly enraged; these humans were far worse than their kind among the demons.
"Do you admit it or not?" Shen Yiren looked at Cen Liangxuan.
Cen Liangxuan calmed down and flatly denied it, "Don't you dare slander this Heir..."
Slap!
Shen Yiren swung her hand and struck him across the face.
The blow sent him staggering on the spot, and the moment he opened his mouth, a bloody tooth fell out.
Cen Liangxuan: "!!!"
Shen Yiren let out a light huff, accidentally locking eyes with Prince Duan, who had been watching the show all along.Zhou Jinyan was sizing her up with an inquiring look.
"My son!" The Duchess of Anguo shot Shen Yiren a venomous glare and hurriedly ordered someone to fetch a physician.
The Duke of Anguo also wore a dark expression as he spat out a single word at Shen Yiren: "Audacious."
"He pushed me off a cliff, and I only gave him a slap—that's already being merciful. Audacious, my foot! I'm not talking to an unreasonable brute like you." Shen Yiren turned her head to look at Shen Qingrui, who was frozen in shock.
She blinked her eyes and asked earnestly, "Since you like Cen Liangxuan and want to marry him, you should have married him openly and aboveboard. Why did you have to sneak around like a thief?"
"Is stealing a habit of yours? Stealing someone else's family, stealing someone else's identity and status, and now stealing someone else's man?" Shen Yiren marveled. "What a completely shameless person!"
Shen Qingrui's face turned from green to white, and then from white to green.
Stiffening her neck, she retorted, "A clean conscience fears no false accusations, and justice dwells in the hearts of the people! I was switched at birth too, so how can you call it stealing? As for today's affair, if you hadn't eloped to escape the marriage, why would I have had to marry in your place!"
"Ah? You were forced into it, so you didn't want to marry him?" Shen Yiren turned her head back to look at Cen Liangxuan. "She didn't want to marry you. You wasted all your effort."
"Besides, since you've been used by someone else, I certainly can't have you anymore." Shen Yiren looked thoroughly disgusted.
Even back on Buxian Mountain, she wouldn't share a patch of soil with any other clan member.
Let alone a dirty man.
Even if he looked human enough, he couldn't be considered pretty.
Among the demon race, truly attractive beings were always so androgynous their gender was impossible to tell.
Take that sickly Prince, for instance.
Oh, where did he go?
"Shen Yiren!" Cen Liangxuan rose to his feet in a fury, his words whistling through the gap in his teeth as he spoke.
Shen Yiren withdrew her gaze and looked at Cen Liangxuan with even deeper disgust. "Learn to speak properly before you open your mouth. Spitting blood at every turn—anyone who didn't know better would think you were on the verge of dying."
How dare she curse him! Cen Liangxuan intended to step forward and slap her back, but the Duchess of Anguo held him back.
With the guests still present, if her son were to hit a woman, wouldn't it give people something to hold against him?
"Shen Yiren, you escaped your wedding?" The Duchess intended to seize upon this point to shift all the blame onto Shen Yiren and the General's Estate, thereby preserving the Duke of Anguo's face.
"Why would I come back if I escaped my wedding?" Shen Yiren couldn't make sense of it. Didn't people always say humans were the smartest creatures? How could they all be so forgetful? She repeated herself, "I already told you, your son tied me up and took me away to kill me."
"Unsubstantiated claims are not to be spoken wildly!"
"Indeed, unsubstantiated claims are not to be spoken wildly—so where is the evidence that I escaped my marriage?" Shen Yiren turned the tables on her. "No wonder Cen Liangxuan dares to do things but lacks the guts to admit them; it turns out the one who gave birth to him is no good either!"
Hiss! How bold! The guests all gasped in unison.
"You!" The Duchess of Anguo flushed red with shame and anger.
Seeing that things were going south, the Duke of Anguo began ushering the guests out: "Since today's farcical mix-up has yet to be sorted out, we trust everyone will refrain from idle talk."
"Of course, of course." This was the Duke of Anguo, a high minister who had served two reigns; naturally, the guests didn't dare gossip openly. But was there ever a wall in this world that didn't let the wind through?
When Madam Shen learned that the daughter she had raised in the palm of her hand had her red bridal veil publicly lifted by that stupid creature brought back from the countryside, she immediately led her estate guards over with a menacing aura.
"Go, drag the Second Young Miss back to the estate!"
The moment the guards drew close, Shen Yiren gave a flick of her hand and sent them flying far away.
Thud, thud!
The sound of them hitting the ground hurt just to listen to.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
"You're not allowed to bully my sister!" Xiao Ba rushed out to shield Shen Yiren.
If his sister hadn't told him to handle things himself and instructed him to stay hidden and watch, he would have jumped out to beat people up the moment his sister slapped that fellow.
Back on Buxian Mountain, if anyone so much as nibbled on one of his sister's leaves, she would stir up a tempest of flying sand and tumbling stones to knock them flat, and then he would go in and administer a beating to clean up the mess.
"Who on earth is this?" Madam Shen looked at the unfamiliar child.
"If not for Xiao Ba, I'd be dead." Shen Yiren patted Xiao Ba on the head.
Only then did Cen Liangxuan realize that it was this wretched little brat who had rescued the scourge that was Shen Yiren.
As for Shen Qingrui, she had no choice but to swallow her broken teeth along with her resentment—how on earth did Shen Yiren have such good fortune that she could be rescued even after tumbling off a cliff?
"Madam Shen really has taught a fine daughter." The Duchess of Anguo targeted Madam Shen.
Madam Shen forced a smile. "The Duchess jokes. She was simply corrupted by country peasants; her temperament is crude and vulgar, and she doesn't know the first thing about rules."
Shen Yiren: "So you actually knew your own biological daughter was swapped at birth and suffered in the countryside for over ten years, yet you still have the nerve to say that."
The smile froze on Madam Shen's face as she whipped her head around. "I truly wish I had never given birth to you!"
"You want to give birth to her?" Shen Yiren walked over and grabbed Shen Qingrui's arm with a strength so great that even Shen Qingrui, who had learned a bit of martial arts since childhood, couldn't break free. "Come on, stuff her back into your belly and give birth to her all over again."
Madam Shen raised her palm to teach her a lesson.
Shen Yiren reached out and caught her wrist. "Can't win an argument so you resort to hitting? What kind of person are you."
"Shen Yiren!" Taking advantage of the loosened grip, Shen Qingrui pulled her arm back and clutched her reddened wrist. "How can you show such disrespect to Mother?"
Shen Yiren: "She's 'Mother' again now?"
Seeing that Shen Yiren was not as timid and cowardly as the rumors suggested and realizing that nobody was going to get any advantage out of her, the Duchess of Anguo cut in immediately: "Enough. My Duke's Estate is not a public street—what kind of spectacle is this endless brawling? Take your disputes back to your General's Estate to discuss them."
"Only, Madam Shen, as for today's events, your General's Estate still owes our Duke's Estate an explanation."
"You people still owe me a life!" Shen Yiren retorted.
Shen Qingrui chimed in, "Isn't she alive and well?"
Madam Shen went to yank her daughter along. "Come back to the estate with me!"
At that moment, the Duke of Anguo returned after seeing Prince Duan out of the mansion, his expression stern. "Madam Shen should also take Shen Qingrui with her."