Red Mansion: Holding Space and Marrying Like the Sea

These words hit Mrs. Wang's heart like a hammer. She stared at the old lady in disbelief, her eyes wide open, her heart filled with turmoil. She had never imagined that the old lady, who had always been quite tolerant of her, would insult her so mercilessly and even slap her in the face!

Mrs. Wang clutched her burning cheek, tears welling in her eyes. She had been married into the Jia family for over twenty years, always treated with respect and courtesy. She had never suffered such a profound humiliation. Now, she felt a surge of grievances, with nowhere to vent them.

However, the old lady didn't seem to feel any sympathy for Madam Wang's pitiful appearance. Instead, her eyes widened and she said viciously, "Is it really that serious? Humph, I think my slap wasn't light enough!" Then, she stared at Madam Wang with a sharp gaze and ordered in a firm tone, "Madam Wang, I'll give you three days to immediately contact the spies we have planted everywhere!"

Hearing this, Madam Wang shuddered, a sense of foreboding washing over her. The old lady continued barking orders, "Your Majesty, you absolutely cannot keep that baby! Hurry, you must help your Majesty get rid of it immediately!"

Upon hearing this, Madame Wang's face was filled with extreme shock and fear. She stared blankly at Old Lady Shi, as if the person standing before her wasn't her familiar mother-in-law, but a completely unfamiliar and cold-blooded person. "Old Lady! What are you talking about? That's the emperor's grandson! How can you just remove him like that?" Madame Wang retorted in a trembling voice.

Then, she added anxiously, "Besides, our Yuanchun finally got pregnant with the dragon seed. If we miss this opportunity, where will we get such a good chance again in the future? You should think twice before you act!"

"The Emperor's anger is only temporary. After the baby is born, perhaps everything will get better!"

"Who would keep insisting on finding out when this child was conceived?"

Old Lady Shi was about to turn around and sit back down on the couch, but when she heard Wang's words, which clearly meant to shift the blame, her anger instantly ignited. Her eyes widened, and she stretched out a withered yet powerful hand, tightly grasping Wang's collar.

The force was so great that it almost dragged Wang off the chair.

"Why make such a fuss? Let me tell you plainly, if we delay even a little bit, the Emperor will punish us personally! The consequences will be disastrous!"

"The little tricks you instigated Her Majesty to use in private have all brought shame upon the royal family and disgust upon the Emperor!"

"Fortunately, we administered the medicine ourselves this time, which was a relatively gentle move and didn't cause any serious damage to the Empress' body!"

"After two years, the Emperor might have already forgotten about this matter. By then, it won't be too late for us to make careful plans!"

"But if you still hesitate and refuse to take action, you will have no choice but to watch others use such cruel methods on your daughter!"

Mrs. Wang's face flushed crimson, and Old Lady Shi grabbed her collar tightly, making it difficult for her to breathe. She desperately tried to pull away from the hand that was pinching her neck.

"Ahem! Old... old lady, I really don't have much manpower available now, how can I do such a thing?" Mrs. Wang said with difficulty while coughing.

"You... please let go of my hand, cough cough cough, please let go of my hand first!" Mrs. Wang's voice was already filled with obvious tears, and she was almost unable to hold on.

At this time, Old Lady Shi was furious, her eyebrows were raised high, and she stared at Mrs. Wang fiercely with her eyes, as if she was about to spit fire.

"No manpower? Stop talking nonsense! Bullshit!" Old Lady Shi roared.

"I'm warning you, Wang! How did you get the queen pregnant with the dragon seed? Now get rid of it for me! Don't miss a single step!"

Wang felt as if her neck was about to break, and her breathing became increasingly disordered, making it impossible to breathe smoothly. She secretly groaned inwardly, thinking that if she did not obey the old lady's wishes, she was afraid that her life would be over here.

"Okay! Ahem! I'll arrange it right away!" Wang shouted this sentence with almost all her strength.

"Please let go, old lady, please be kind and let go!" Wang's face had turned from red to white, and she looked very scary.

Hearing that Wang had finally agreed, Old Lady Shi finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, she didn't give up. Instead, she threw Wang out violently with a flick of her hand, as if she were discarding a piece of useless trash.

"Hmph! Back then, I really indulged you too much and made you into this state! Look at you now, you are so bold as to plot against the royal family!" Old Lady Shi pointed at Wang who was lying on the ground and cursed angrily.

"Hmph, once this matter is completely over, just wait and see how I will punish you!"

"From now on, you will never again possess even a fraction of the special powers I granted you in the past! All you can do now is pray sincerely that this matter ends quickly and that the Emperor will be more satisfied with our family!"

Wang's face was as pale as paper, her hands tightly covering her neck, she looked weak and leaned limply on the back of the wide chair.

She opened her mouth and gasped for breath like a fish out of water; on the other hand, her mind was like a rapidly spinning top, with thoughts constantly churning and surging.

Although what the old lady said sounded extremely strange and frightening, for some reason, Wang always felt deep down that things were not that serious.

If she had really obeyed all the old lady's instructions, she would not have served as a female official in the palace, or she would not have used various strategies to climb up to the emperor's throne, and she would not even dare to think about using her brain to seek a high position. Then how could her own Yuanchun have such an enviable opportunity today?

Besides, who in the world doesn't love children? Admittedly, the means used to conceive the dragon fetus this time were not particularly glamorous.

However, if she aborted the fetus so easily, it would be extremely difficult to successfully attract the emperor's attention and gain his favor again next time!

The old lady said it in an easy and simple way, but the one who really had to face all the intrigues and deceptions in the deep palace was her precious daughter whom she loved like her own flesh and blood!

Thinking of this, Wang felt a mixture of grievance and resentment, and secretly swore in her heart: After going through all this hardship and torture, she was unwilling to continue to accompany Old Lady Shi and pretend to be filial!

Not long after, the person moved and slowly stood up. Then he respectfully bowed to the mother-in-law sitting above him and said softly, "I, the daughter-in-law, will take my leave first." After that, he turned around and walked towards the door.

However, fate always seemed to like playing tricks on people. Just as she was about to reach her own courtyard, a figure suddenly rushed towards her like a cannonball, colliding with her head-on. Because it happened so suddenly, she was completely unprepared and was knocked back a few steps by the force, nearly falling to the ground.

After she regained her composure, she took a closer look and a surge of anger welled up in her heart. It turned out that this reckless person was actually the notorious and mentally retarded old lady from the Rongguo Mansion. At this moment, the silly old lady had a bewildered look on her face, as if she had no idea that she had just gotten into such a big trouble.

"How dare you! You blind slave, you can't even walk properly, yet you dare to offend your master. What's the point of keeping useless things like you in the mansion!" Mrs. Wang was already holding a lot of resentment in her heart, and now she encountered such a thing. How could she still be patient and pretend to be kind as before?

Because she was going to conspire with Madam Shi regarding the Imperial Concubine's childbearing today, she hadn't brought along her trusted attendant, Zhou Ruijia. Now, faced with this situation, she had no choice but to personally confront the situation. Her eyes widened, her teeth clenched, as she glared fiercely at the silly girl in front of her, wishing she could kick her to the ground to vent her anger!

However, what was unexpected was that this silly girl was not afraid at all when facing Wang's scolding. She even turned around and gave Wang a silly laugh. Wang was furious when she saw this. But when she looked at the person in front of her carefully again, she suddenly realized that this girl was the fool that everyone in the mansion knew.

Although this little girl looked silly and seemed to be indifferent to the scolding, she knew clearly that the person in front of her was the mistress of the mansion. So, after giggling, she actually squatted down and bowed politely to Wang.

At this critical moment, the silly girl who was playing happily alone suddenly found that her beloved toy had fallen to the ground. She stretched out her chubby little hand without hesitation and tried to pick it up.

Wang, who was standing nearby, also naturally looked down. However, when she saw the fallen object clearly, her eyes widened instantly, and her gaze became extremely fierce, as if it was about to spit fire.

"Where did it come from? Tell me quickly! Where did you get this thing from?" Wang asked angrily, her voice so deafening that everyone around her shuddered.

The poor silly girl had no time to react before the furious Mrs. Wang pushed her hard. She stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. But surprisingly, despite falling so miserably, the silly girl did not cry like other children. Instead, she tightly grasped the purse she had just found and even shook it triumphantly at Mrs. Wang.

"Baby! This is a baby! It's a good baby that can watch fairies fighting!" The silly girl said with an innocent tone while smiling foolishly.

Wang's face darkened upon hearing this. She took a closer look at the purse, and sure enough, just as the silly girl had said, the embroidery on it was a gruesome scene of goblins fighting, and those goblins were all naked!

Wang was so angry that she was shaking all over. She looked around and thought to herself: How could such a shameless thing sneak into the mansion in broad daylight! Looking at the silly maid who was still sitting on the ground, laughing foolishly, she could no longer suppress her anger. She raised her hand and wanted to smash the purse into the silly girl's face.

Outside the courtyard, a crowd of people surged, with maids and old women coming and going. Madam Wang raised her arm with a gloomy expression. Although she was filled with rage, she gritted her teeth and forced the doll into her sleeve.

"Madam! That's mine! I got it with great difficulty!" The silly girl standing by was so anxious when she saw that the madam had confiscated her favorite toy. She didn't care about anything else and knelt down with a plop. She raised her head and shouted at Mrs. Wang to give it back.

Mrs. Wang pondered to herself, feeling that the doll truly emanated an evil aura. The women of the inner chambers shouldn't possess such an object. She suspected it had most likely been secretly brought in by some unscrupulous servant. And the purpose, most likely, was to seduce her beloved, lustful son, Jia Baoyu!

"Madam, this is what has happened," Mrs. Wang reported to Old Lady Shi, tears streaming down her face. "Look, old lady, what should we do? Baoyu must not let those vixen-like little hoofs lead him astray!"

Yet, Old Lady Shi, sitting high up in her throne, narrowed her eyes slightly, unable to help but wonder: Could this second daughter-in-law be a mortal enemy sent by Heaven to oppose me? She can't even handle such a trivial matter properly, and yet she has the nerve to shamelessly demand this and that from me on a daily basis! Humph, thinking of this, Old Lady Shi secretly regretted not pinching Wang a few times this morning!

It had only been a short while! How could she have caused such a terrible thing for herself this time? She frowned and said angrily, "Go back quickly! You don't need to interfere in this matter!"

Then, she turned to look at Yuanyang and gave a firm order, "Yuanyang, gather all the servants in our courtyard and go to Baoyu's place to investigate. If anyone refuses to confess, search their rooms directly! Remember, be gentle and don't disturb Baoyu's sleep!"