Chapter 242 The Truth

As a youth in the 21st century, Tang Xia believed that she had always behaved herself and abided by the law. She was a youth who fully conformed to the core values of socialism. How could she do such a ruthless thing that was utterly devoid of conscience, and which was against reason and nature!

It must be Ling Er, that bitch!

The more Tang Xia thought about it, the angrier she felt. She immediately kicked the door open and pointed at Ling Er, as she cursed, “You bitch! How dare you make unfounded and malicious attacks on me! Have you forgotten what I said to you! God is watching everything that you do! Aren’t you afraid of retribution for slandering me like this, right now?”

Ling Er shrieked the moment Tang Tia kicked the door open, and she forcefully squeezed herself into Zhong Ze’s arms. She waited for Tang Xia to finish speaking, before she cried even more bitterly. She then tried hard to squeeze into Zhong Ze’s arms before she began to whimper softly.

Tang Xia looked at her aggrieved look and she felt even more resentful. She stepped forward, pulled Ling Er away from Zhong Ze’s arms, then raised her hand and slapped her hard on the face.

“Bitch! How dare you still pretend to be ignorant and foolish even at this point in time, and to hold me accountable for all those evil deeds?”

Ling Er covered her face before she fell to her knees and knelt on the ground.

“Ling Er, I would advise you to speak the truth in front of the master!”

When Ling Er saw this, she looked up at Tang Xia. She then sneaked a peek at Zhong Ze before she said softly, “Sister, the heavens could testify that I really did not do these things.”

“If sister insists that I have to help you to take the rap, I have nothing to say. But just like what sister said, God is watching everything that you do. If there is any retribution, then let me share it with you.”

“Share it with me?” Tang Xia turned from anger into laughter. She pointed at Ling Er, who was kneeling on the ground, and screamed coldly, “You want me to share the burden of all those evil things that you did with you? I am not interested in incurring retribution with you!”

“Sister…”

Before Ling Er could finish speaking, Zhong Ze, who was beside her, could not bear to watch this anymore. He pulled Ling Er up from the ground, and roared out loud at Tang Xia,

“Get out from here!”

Tang Xia was stunned; she had not expected Zhong Ze to yell at her.

By the time she reacted, she saw that Zhong Ze had switched to a gentle expression and was comforting Ling Er, “It’s alright. Wait for me to go out and make things clear with that venomous woman. I will not let you suffer any grievance again.”

Ling Er peeked at Tang Xia carefully and, as if she was greatly intimidated, she quickly retracted her gaze. She burrowed herself in Zhong Ze’s arms, and nodded her head gently.

Tang Xia really could not bear to watch the affection between the couple, so she turned in rage and slammed the door shut, as she left.

Zhong Ze carried Ling Er to the bed, tucked her in and patted her hand to indicate that she had no need to worry. He then went out.

Outside, Tang Xia stood in front of a bunch of flowers, breaking off its leaves forcefully. Zhong Ze, that bastard. Aside from the fact that he was spoiling his mistress and neglecting his wife, he even wanted to hold her accountable for the horrible deed of conspiring and murdering his lawful wife.

She was truly fuming mad!

A while after Zhong Ze had comforted his shameless mistress, she would definitely reason it out with him!

Tang Xia had finished destroying that stalk of flower and leaves, and was about to find another stalk to destroy, when she noticed from the corner of her eye that Zhong Ze had already come out from the room. He even closed the door gently, as if he did not want his beloved mistress to overhear their conversation.

She became even angrier when she saw Zhong Ze’s actions. She put down the stalk of flower, which she had yet to destroy completely, and charged up to Zhong Ze, angrily.

“Now that we’re all outside the room, if there’s anything that you want to say, say it quickly.”

Zhong Ze gave her a look and calmly walked over to a spot far from the door of the room. Coincidentally, he stopped in front of that stalk of flower and leaf which Tang Xia had destroyed earlier on.

He snorted and remarked mockingly, “After so many years, you still have not changed your habit of destroying flowers, whenever you are angry.”

Tang Xia was momentarily stunned. She did not think that her unintentional move was actually similar to the personality of the original owner.

However, she quickly sorted out her mood and tried her best to deal with Zhong Ze’s mockery “Master, you are unaware, not only do I destroy flowers, but I also to destroy weirdos. I am the legendary deflowerer.”

Zhong Ze was not in the mood to think about Tang Xia’s strange talk. He snorted coldly and his tone of voice was chilly, “Tang Ning, what exactly do you want?”

“What do I want?” Tang Xia asked rhetorically. “I don’t want anything! I am just pleading with Master to clear my name and declare my innocence.”

“Innocence?” Zhong Ze laughed out loud, as if he heard the best joke in the world. His expression was like an evil spirit who had escaped from hell, and he said viciously to Tang Xia,

“Innocence? Where is your innocence from, Tang Ning? If it weren’t for you, would Susu have gone to the wilderness alone? Would she have been violated? Would she have thrown herself into the water and die?”

Tang Xia flushed red with anger. Zhong Ze had probably been fully brainwashed by that bitch and the most basic ability to distinguish between right and wrong had ceased to exist in his brain!

“Great! Great! Great!” She said these three words consecutively. “Well Zhong Ze, you have actually been brainwashed by that vixen. Oh, no. Your brain was directly eaten by the vixen!”

“You are really thick-skinned!” Instead of being angry, Zhong Ze laughed. “Did you think that I do not know who summoned those beggars who violated Susu? Did you think that I have no evidence?”

“Evidence?” Tang Xia asked with a frown. She suddenly felt a little flustered, and it was as if things were no longer within her control.

“Why, Miss Tang, what are you thinking about? Were you thinking about what went wrong with your plan, and how I actually managed to get hold of the evidence?”

“Don’t make unfounded slanders!”

Zhong Ze took a step forward. His aura was strong and he closed in on Tang Xia. Tang Xia forced herself not to back off. She then glared back furiously at him, with her chest out and her head held up high.

“You really are not going to shed tears until you see the coffin, are you? Tang Ning, let me tell you. If it’s not because your father wields great power and is able to control the situation in the court, do you think that you would still be alive today? Did you think that you could still behave wildly at will in the Zhong Mansion? Did you think that you would still be able to stand here and talk to me?”

Tang Xia shook her head incredulously. “No, this is impossible!”

“Ha!” Zhong Ze snorted. “Impossible? Miss Tang, you are really forgetful. It was obviously something that you did, and yet you still dare to say that it is impossible?”

Tang Xia shook her head. Suddenly, she rushed forward as if she was mad and she clutched at Zhong Ze’s clothes tightly, as she shouted, “Impossible!”

Zhong Ze looked straight at Tang Xia. As he looked into her eyes, he forcefully removed her hands away from his clothes, and said one word at a time, “Just like what you said to Ling Er, God is watching everything that you do.”

“God is also fair. God will definitely not malign a good person and neither will God let a bad person off! Tang Ning, maybe you did not even know it yourself, but you more or less left behind some evidence for all the things that you thought you had done covertly.”

Tang Xia felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Her legs went soft and she fell to the ground.

Her hair was loose and messy, and locks of hair hung down beside her ears. The hairpin, which she originally wore on her head, also hung loosely on top of that lock of hair, like a canoe in the sea. There was a hollow expression in her eyes, and her lips opened and closed like a dying fish.

When Zhong Ze saw her appearance, he felt even more disgusted, in his heart. He bypassed Tang Xia and walked straight back into Ling Er’s room.

Before he closed the door, he did not forget to say, “If you have nothing else, scram back to your own courtyard. Don’t come out and make a fool of yourself, when you have nothing better to do!”

Tang Xia did not know how she managed to make her way back to her courtyard.

What Zhong Ze had said was too shocking for her to indicate that she could not believe it at all.

In her opinion, she was a great youth and would not do such evil deeds that were against reason and nature. However, Zhong Ze’s words sounded justifiable, and he seemed to have the evidence. This made it difficult for her not to believe them.

“Madam!” Tang Xia heard Bi Luo exclaim.

Tang Xia seemed to have regained her energy and she grabbed Bi Luo’s arms and asked as if she was possessed, “Bi Luo, Zhong Ze also said that I was the one who caused the death of Cheng Lingsu. Do you know about this incident? Tell me about it. Could you tell me about it?”

Bi Luo was shocked and the tray fell from her hands.

She panted and shut her eyes tightly. “Madam…”

However, it seemed that Tang Xia did not hear her and she continued to clutch Bi Luo’s arm as she spoke agitatedly, “You must know right? Tell me! Tell me!”

Bi Luo knelt on the ground with a plop, and the sound made Tang Xia’s heart tremble.

Subsequently, Bi Luo’s voice became slightly shrill and miserable, “Madam! “Didn’t we agree not to talk about these things anymore!”

It was the final nail in the coffin!

Tang Xia suddenly released her hands which had been holding onto Bi Luo’s arm. She staggered back into the room, and threw herself on the bed.

Bi Luo followed after her closely, and her heart felt very miserable when she saw her Madam’s distracted and dejected look.

“Madam…” She half knelt down beside the bed, and placed her hand on Tang Xia’s knee.

“Bi Luo, you’ve known all along, haven’t you?”

“…Yes, Madam.” After a moment’s hesitation, Bi Luo replied honestly. After that, she began to talk about the incident in detail, without waiting for further instructions from Tang Xia.

“At the time, you were the one who asked Madam Cheng to go out to admire the flowers. You then asked me to use the excuse of helping you to deliver a letter back to your maternal home, to meet the gang of beggars in the suburbs, and lead them to where Madam Cheng was admiring the flowers at. After that… after that…”

“Subsequently, nature took its course?” Tang Xia said hopelessly.

Bi Luo acknowledged softly before she added, “But Madam, at the start, you did not intend to take the life of Madam Cheng! Well… You merely wanted to scare Madam Cheng and get her to leave the Master!”

Tang Xia smiled and shook her head, without speaking.

This incident was indeed her fault. Even if her initial plan was not to take the life of Cheng Lingsu, but it produced that result. Cheng Lingsu died, and she became the First Madam of the Zhong Mansion. However, she lost Zhong Ze’s heart.

She was the one who did not think about Cheng Lingsu’s staunch moral integrity. She was forced to see the ending that she did not want to see, and was forced to accept the status quo that she did not want to accept. She then became angry, and cried and screamed, but what was done had been done, and it could not be brushed aside.

As this thought crossed her mind, she was prepared to summon the system to admit defeat.

But all of a sudden, she thought of something. She looked at Bi Luo who was half-kneeling next to her and she asked, “What about Ling Er? What’s with her?”