The Double-Chapter 581 - 170: The Real Culprit_4

"She’s already married, Mother," Shen Yurong reminded.

"I know, but now she’s had a miscarriage," Mother Shen said, "Having miscarried, she is also thinking about you. Just a few words from you, and she would be able to divorce the Li Family and marry into our Shen family."

"Yes, yes, yes," Shen Ruyun also said eagerly, "Our Shen family will not be like the Li Family, we will take good care of her!"

Just hearing this, one might think this is a family with warm hearts. To think they’re willing to welcome her into their home, not minding that she’s been married before and had a child with another man. Little do they know that the child in Princess Yongning’s womb was his; had they known, they might not cease their commotion.

"Forget about this matter," Shen Yurong said coldly, "She will not divorce, and there is no need for her to enter the doors of the Shen family." With that, he ignored Shen Ruyun and after giving a nod to Mother Shen, left the hall and walked towards the courtyard. freeweɓnøvel.com

Behind him, the voices of Shen Ruyun and Mother Shen arguing could be heard, but Shen Yurong did not want to listen. Although his official position had not been low, for some reason, Mother Shen and Shen Ruyun still hoped he would climb higher by relying on Princess Yongning. There was a time when they just wanted him to study hard, skimping and saving to accumulate enough silver for his school fees, never complaining. But now, clearly free from worries about food and clothing, they remained unsatisfied.

When did they start to become greedy? Shen Yurong did not know. By the time he realized things had reached an irrevocable point, it seemed too late.

In order to gain higher power and status, his family did not hesitate to want him to sell his dignity, even if it meant dealing covertly with a married woman, which made Shen Yurong feel somewhat disgusted.

He truly did not wish to entangle himself in these matters anymore, and recently, the only thing that gave him relief was the loss of his child, the one in Princess Yongning’s womb. As a father, Shen Yurong did not feel a shred of sadness; he even felt grateful to the person responsible, regardless of who it was. He didn’t care; he was simply relieved that the person had done him this favor.

It allowed him to completely sever ties with Princess Yongning.

...

Shen Ruyun spoke with Mother Shen for a while before she got into the carriage to return to the Mansion.

The Marquis Ningyuan’s Mansion did not bother with her, not because she was Shen Yurong’s sister and they dared not control her, but because Zhou Yanbang, the Heir of Marquis Ningyuan and her husband, simply did not care about her existence, indifferent. So whether she left the house during the day or returned to her mother’s house at night, no one paid any attention.

This time returning to the Shen family, aside from urging Shen Yurong to reconcile with Princess Yongning, Shen Ruyun also bitterly complained to Mother Shen.

After marrying into the Marquis Ningyuan’s Mansion, Shen Ruyun’s days were not easy. Zhou Yanbang spent his days in the pleasure houses, drinking merrily, only returning home drunk late at night. Shen Ruyun would get angry whenever she saw him, but Zhou Yanbang treated her just like a stranger, never as a wife, and even treated Jiang Yue, a concubine from the Shen family, better than he treated Shen Ruyun.

Jiang Yue knew how to be lowly and flattering, attending to Zhou Yanbang’s every need, and she had countless despicable tactics that always kept Zhou Yanbang wrapped around her finger in her courtyard. Shen Ruyun wanted to lash out at Jiang Yue, but she could never catch Jiang Yue red-handed, letting her slip away like a slippery loach each time.

Only then did Shen Ruyun realize that within the inner court, she had no leverage. Perhaps because the Shen family had very few female members and a simple household, where the only outsider, Xue Fangfei, had a gentle and soft temperament, Shen Ruyun had no challengers in the Shen family, thus never needing to learn any schemes. In the unfamiliar battlefield of Marquis Ningyuan’s Mansion, she was defenseless. Her only reliance was her status as the Princely Heir’s wife, but Zhou Yanbang did not even regard this status, indifferent as if whoever became the Princely Heir’s wife was all the same.

Perhaps in Zhou Yanbang’s eyes, among the multitude of charming women he knew, Shen Ruyun was just too plain. Before the incident at the palace banquet, Zhou Yanbang had no impression of Shen Ruyun, which showed he did not favor her, not even having a liking for her.