The Calculator Dies
On the other side, Li Zhoumu hurried back to the mansion and immediately ordered the doors to be locked.
The maids who had accompanied Mrs. Li to the Yu family to stir up trouble were now being held down on a bench by the servants, wailing in fear.
"You are all really something! The moment I step out for business, you decide to act recklessly!" Li Zhoumu paced back and forth in the courtyard, his anger boiling over.
"Master, we have been wronged!" an elderly woman cried out in pain. "It was Madam who ordered us to carry the third young lady's body to the governor's mansion. Please, have mercy!"
"Madam ordered you?" Li Zhoumu's fury escalated. "And you blindly followed her to create such chaos? Beat them! Beat them hard!"
"If it weren't for their reckless words and instigations, how could Madam have lost her mind and caused such a scene?"
The maids from Miss Li San's courtyard regretted their actions so much that they wished they could disappear.
They had only wanted to find a scapegoat to take the blame, hoping it would lessen their own punishments. They never expected Madam to take things to the extreme—ordering them to carry the third young lady's body to the Yu mansion to make a scene.
What should have been a simple dispute had turned into a catastrophe. Not only was their mistress humiliated in public, but the real cause of the third lady's death had also been exposed. The girl was more terrifying than a ghost!
Just then, a maid came running over, her face pale with panic. She screamed, "Master! Madam is trying to take her own life in her room!"
Li Zhoumu felt his vision blur from anger. With a furious shake of his sleeves, he stormed into the room, shouting, "Have you had enough of this madness?"
"Madness? You call this madness?" Mrs. Li shoved aside the maid restraining her and rushed toward Li Zhoumu, her eyes red with rage. "Li Zhoumu, do you dare to tell me the truth? Do you?"
Li Zhoumu stared at his wife's tear-streaked face for a long moment before speaking in a deep voice. "Leave us!"
The trembling servants hesitated for only a second before fleeing, as if granted amnesty. The door slammed shut behind them.
Li Zhoumu turned to his wife, his voice sharp. "Do you not find this shameful enough? A dignified wife of the provincial governor, tricked by a few servants?"
"The old lady merely happened to encounter her on the way back to the city. How could she possibly be involved in San'er's death?"
"And you! You slandered the lady of the Yu family, acted irrationally, and personally carried San'er's body to their doorstep to demand justice! Do you have any idea what you've done? By tomorrow, every teahouse and restaurant in the city will be filled with people mocking our household! The entire province will be laughing at us!"
"Reputation, reputation! All you care about is reputation!" Mrs. Li shrieked as she hurled decorations across the room. "If I hadn't taken San'er's body there, I would have never learned the truth! My daughter—my own flesh and blood, whom I carried for ten months and raised with my own hands! She suffered, and you did nothing!"
"Why did she hang herself? Why?! Are Li Yan and you even human? You are both monsters!"
SMACK!
Li Zhoumu's patience snapped. He struck his wife across the face.
"Why? Because I am her father!" he roared. "She was an unmarried girl who dared to have an affair! She was carrying an illegitimate child! She deserved to die!"
"You dare to cry and accuse me? This is all your fault! You indulged her to the point that she became completely lawless!"
"Do you know what she did? She secretly ordered someone to drug Prince Mu's drink! Did she think she could ensnare a man like him with her pathetic schemes?"
"A disgraceful wretch! A reckless, shameful fool trying to frame the prince of the Xuanping Marquisate!" Li Zhoumu spat. "Who did she think she was? Did she imagine she could manipulate a man like that? Prince Mu is no ordinary noble—he was a battlefield commander at eleven, leading the Black Flag Army by thirteen! Even the Emperor and the Prime Minister praised his brilliance. And your daughter, with her tiny schemes, thought she could trap him?"
"The evidence landed on my desk that very night. Everything about her affair with that actor from the Zhu family troupe."
Mrs. Li clutched her swollen face, staring at her husband in disbelief. Her voice trembled. "W-What actor…?"
"What actor?" Li Zhoumu's fury reignited. "Your so-called precious daughter had an affair with a mere performer! A stage actor from the Zhu family troupe! A man called Qianyue Gongzi!"
"Your daughter threw away her father's reputation like trash and became a laughingstock!"
Mrs. Li's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.
"You—how could you not know?" Li Zhoumu sneered. "She was obsessed with that man. She sneaked away to Wuhu County to meet him, shamelessly entangling herself with an actor, and you were blind to it all?"
"Such a fine daughter you raised! And now you dare to wail and threaten suicide?"
Mrs. Li clutched at the curtains, her voice hoarse with disbelief. "But… she told me she was going to Zhenning Temple in Wuhu County… that the flowers were in full bloom… that praying there was effective…"
Li Zhoumu let out a cold laugh. "Do you even understand what kind of man Prince Mu is? Do you think a fool like San'er could ever outwit him?"
"She schemed against the prince of the Xuanping Marquisate, and yet, did she even consider what this would mean for her sisters? Do you think any respectable family would still want to marry them after this scandal? Do you still have the face to cry?"
"Thanks to her disgraceful actions, our entire household's reputation is in ruins. If the husbands of her sisters find out, how will they hold their heads high in society?"
"If you want to protect what's left of this family, then act as if she never existed. I worked hard to bury this scandal, but you—you destroyed everything! You dragged her body to the Yu Mansion and made a spectacle of yourself! Now the whole city is laughing at us!"
Mrs. Li sobbed uncontrollably. After a long moment, she choked out, "Then… where is that actor? Why didn't you kill him? My poor daughter…"
"You think I didn't try?" Li Zhoumu's eyes burned with rage. "That bastard was smart. The moment he sensed danger, he fled from the Zhu family and disappeared without a trace."
He turned his cold gaze back to his wife. "If you still want to stir up trouble and ruin the entire provincial governor's household over a disgrace like him, then don't blame me for being ruthless."
With that, Li Zhoumu stormed out, his sleeves flicking sharply behind him.
Mrs. Li crumpled to the floor, sobbing.
That night, Mu Zhao glanced over a letter in his hand, reading ten lines at once. A faint smile flickered in his dark eyes.
"Li San should never have tried to scheme against me," he murmured.
"Those who dare to plot against me deserve to die."