Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

"Snapped--"

A loud slap in the face.

Yu fell to the ground, the slap was so loud that her ears were still ringing.

In a daze, along with the buzzing sound came a faint burning sensation on her left cheek.

"Ah—you hit me!"

At this moment, Madam Yu no longer cared about appearances and staggered to her feet.

She gently stroked her gradually reddening cheek with her left hand, then raised her right hand and pointed at Duke Anguo, angrily cursing.

"You bastard, An Guochang! How dare you hit me! I eloped with you after our arranged marriage, and you dare treat me like this!"

She raised her lips and glared angrily.

Duke Anguo was not angered by Yu's words; on the contrary, the slap made him much more sober.

He slowly stood up, meeting Yu Shi's blazing anger head-on.

"I hit you because you spoke so arrogantly. If our conversation were to reach the palace today, have you ever considered that your good son's fate would be hundreds of times worse than it is now!"

"It was that lowly Zhu girl who seduced our son, how come you're making it sound like it's my Lian'er's fault? Are you even his father?!"

Seeing this, Lady Yu decided to stop holding back and instead pointed at Duke Anguo's nose and continued to berate him.

"I thought you were the Marquis of Nanyang, and you're just a daughter of an imperial censor. You could easily find a few people to deal with them. Why bother making such a fuss at home beating Lian'er? Whose side are you really on?"

Duke Anguo paused upon hearing Yu's words, even though she was thinking of him in her heart!

Suddenly, the nameless anger in my heart was reignited.

"You woman! Say that again, or do you believe me..."

Duke Anguo raised his hand to slap her again, but before his hand could reach her, the door to the study was knocked on at an inopportune moment.

"Dong dong dong..."

"Who?"

Duke Anguo's face immediately darkened, and he quickly lowered his hand that was raised in the air.

“It’s me, sir.”

Ye Zhiheng's voice came from outside the house, and Duke Anguo's heart tightened. He wouldn't care if it were anyone else, but Ye Zhiheng was his confidant, and he knew that Ye Zhiheng was handling important matters in the study.

The fact that they contacted him at this time suggests that they had something important to report.

He raised his head and glared at Yu Shi, his eyes filled with a warning.

Yu Shi naturally knew Ye Zhiheng. She shut her mouth and stopped talking. She simply found a clean, soft couch to sit down, ready to have a second round of arguing with this old man.

"Come in."

Duke Anguo straightened his clothes before inviting Ye Zhiheng into the house.

"Yes, sir."

Ye Zhiheng slowly pushed open the door and entered. Dressed in a reddish-brown long robe, he looked quite plain. There was no indication that he was the chief steward of the Marquis of Anguo's residence.

He caught a glimpse of Madam Yu sitting on the soft couch out of the corner of his eye, and he quickly fell silent, intending to speak.

When Duke Anguo saw his unusual behavior, he naturally assumed that there were other people in the room.

He glanced at Yu Shi, who was fixing her hair not far away, and thought to himself that although he had just had a fierce argument with Yu Shi, they were husband and wife after all, and no matter what, they were not outsiders.

In any case, there's no need to deliberately hide anything that happens in the Marquis's residence.

Thinking of this, Duke Anguo spoke softly.

"Just say it."

"Yes, sir." Ye Zhiheng naturally had received his master's orders, which was why he dared to speak.

"I just saw the young master go to the ancestral hall..."

"Has the imperial physician been sent?"

Yu asked first, standing up abruptly, wanting to know if Lian'er had received any treatment.

After all, she had just seen how badly her Lian'er had been whipped.

"Yes...this servant was just about to call the physician to examine the young master, but I didn't expect..."

"Please speak freely."

Duke Anguo's heart skipped a beat; the unexpected remark had already chilled him to the bone.

Seeing the questioning looks on his two masters' faces, Ye Zhiheng dared not delay any longer.

"Seeing that the young master was eating in the ancestral hall, and remembering that the master had previously established a rule that no one was allowed to eat in the ancestral hall..."

"You insolent fool! Why don't you have someone throw all the food out of the ancestral hall?"

Duke Anguo's face darkened immediately. Even he hadn't expected that before he had even forgiven him, the man had already arranged everything for him.

They didn't even take his family rules seriously!

"Of course I wouldn't dare... Young Master... Young Master is still..."

Ye Zhiheng stammered, and seeing him like this, Madam Yu inwardly cried out in alarm and quickly tried to stop him.

"He was just eating something, sir, please don't blame him. Let someone from the manor check his injury first, shall we?"

Duke Anguo turned and glared at her, his gloomy and ruthless look startling even Madam Yu.

"Is he still in the ancestral hall?"

"Exactly."

"Walk."

Without saying a word, Duke Anguo picked up the whip that was on the table again and stormed out.

Seeing this, Madam Yu, who was lagging behind, naturally dared not delay and quickly followed her master's footsteps, walking together towards the An family ancestral hall.

She thought to herself, "I hope her son can escape this calamity today!"

Cheng Qiangong

Pei Nanyue, dressed in a pale yellow dress, knelt opposite Consort Ning. Her long, ink-black hair was styled in a bun, and her bright eyes and white teeth revealed a calm demeanor on her small, delicate face.

They seemed completely unaffected by the recent rumors circulating in Nanyang, the capital.

Consort Ning has been feeling unwell lately, so she had the eunuchs change her nameplate and allowed her to rest properly in her bedchamber.

Today, she was also dressed in a loose, light blue palace gown, leaning against the window railing, her eyes lowered as she looked at Pei Nanyue.

This was the first time she had seen Pei Nanyue grace her bedchamber with her presence since they began their "cooperation".

After a long while, when Pei Nanyue raised the cup of tea in front of her for the sixteenth time, Consort Ning finally couldn't help but speak.

"If you come here for tea, I might as well pack some for you to take home and enjoy slowly when you leave. What's the point of leaving me here watching over it?"

She was naturally somewhat displeased. It was Pei Nanyue who had first submitted her nameplate to enter the palace to find her, but she hadn't expected that once she came in, she would just keep her head down and drink tea in silence.

She naturally had no patience to wait any longer.

After all, her only 'son' is about to go to the battlefield, a matter of life and death, and no one can say for sure when she will lose this support.

Pei Nanyue slowly raised her head to look at her 'ally', and suddenly a smile appeared on her lips, as bright and beautiful as a flower blooming in spring.

"Your Majesty, please do not be anxious. I have come today with good news for you. Such important information is naturally not something I would dare to entrust to others. I hope Your Majesty will dismiss your attendants."

She caught a glimpse of the palace maids out of the corner of her eye; there were roughly ten or so of them.

Right now, although she doesn't care about her blatant entry into the palace, she naturally can't let a third person here know the information she has.